Census data puts uninsured at 13.4% in 2013, echoes Q1 reported rate

Roughly 13.4% of Americans were uninsured in 2013, but comparing that with previous years of U.S. Census Bureau data isn't possible because of a change in the questions used, the bureau reported Tuesday. The 2013 uninsured level is roughly equivalent to an estimate of uninsured for the first quarter of 2014 released earlier Tuesday by another government agency.

Of the 86.6% of Americans who had insurance last year, 64.2% were covered by private insurance and 34.3% by government insurance of some type, defined to include military and veterans healthcare, the census report noted. That compared with 63.9% in private insurance in 2012.

Employment-based health insurance covered 53.9% of the population last year, down slightly from 54.9% the previous year.

Even though Medicaid expansion didn't kick in until Jan. 1, 2014, 17.3%, or 54 million Americans, were covered by the program in 2013, compared to 50.9 million, or 16.4% in 2012, according to the bureau.

The bureau's report came only hours after the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics revealed that individuals lacking health insurance coverage decreased by 3.8 million in the first quarter of this year. The level of uninsured dropped from 14.4% to 13.1%, compared to the same period in 2013, that survey said.

The U.S. Census report also found that the nation's official poverty rate in 2013 was 14.5%, down from 15% in 2012. Median household income in the United States in 2013 was $51,939, slightly higher than $51,759 the year before.

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