Health Insurance Facts And Statistics 2024 (2024)

• 89.1% of adults (between 18 to 64 years old) had health insurance at some point in 2023, while 7.6% of Americans of all ages did not.²
• About four in 10 adults (41%) report having debt from unpaid medical or dental bills.¹
• Texas has the largest population of uninsured nonelderly adults (18.9%) and Massachusetts has the lowest (2.8%).¹
• Hispanic and Black working-age adults were less likely to have healthcare coverage than white/non-Hispanic or Asian adults in 2023.³
• Dental services are the most common type of healthcare that adults will delay due to costs (35%), followed by vision services (25%) and a doctor’s visit (24%).¹

• Unexpected medical bills and the cost of healthcare ranked as the top two worries related to affordability among Americans in 2024.¹
• Cost is preventing people from getting care; 9.3% of adults reported not seeing a doctor in 2022 because of the expense.¹
• Healthcare expenditures per capita averaged $12,555 in the U.S. in 2022, more than $4,000 higher than in other high-income countries.⁴
• Total national healthcare expenditures reached $4.5 trillion in 2022, slightly higher than in 2021 when expenditures totaled $4.3 trillion.⁴
• Preferred provider organizations (PPOs) are the most common type of health plan for covered workers, followed by high deductible health plans (HDHPs).¹

89.1% of Americans had health insurance at some point in 2023²

• Slightly more adults (ages 18 to 64) had health insurance in 2023 than in 2022.²
• Slightly fewer children (ages 0 to 17) were uninsured in 2023 (3.9%) than in 2022 (4.2%).²
• Slightly more elderly adults (65 years or more) were uninsured in 2023 (0.7%) than in 2022 (0.6%).²

7.6% of all aged Americans did not have health insurance in 2023²

• Fewer Americans were uninsured in 2023 (7.6%) than in 2019 (10.3%).²
• The number one reason uninsured nonelderly adults (between the ages 18 and 64) reported they don’t have health insurance is that coverage is not affordable (64.2%), followed by eligibility issues (28.4%) and not needing or wanting to be insured (26.1%).¹
• The region with the highest percentage of uninsured working-age adults was in the South (7.7%), followed by the West (4.2%).³
• Of the 10.9% of working-age adults who did not have coverage, Hispanic adults had the largest uninsured percentage (24.8%), followed by Black adults at 10.4%. Meanwhile, 4.4% of Asian adults and 6.8% of non-Hispanic white adults didn’t have health insurance in 2022.²

• Health insurance for young adults is lacking. Young adults have the highest uninsured percentages of any age group with 14% of people 19 to 25 without health insurance and 12.5% of people 26 to 34 without coverage in 2022.³
• An estimated 3.9% (2.8 million) of children were uninsured in 2023, compared to 5.1% (3.7 million) in 2019.²

• Private health insurance was more prevalent than public health insurance in 2023, with 68.1% of insured adults having a private healthcare plan compared to 23% having a public healthcare plan.²
• Employment-based health insurance was the most common subtype of health insurance coverage, covering 54.5% of the American population.³
• Medicaid and Medicare were the second most common subtype of health insurance in 2022, covering 18.8% and 18.7% of the population.³
• Direct-purchase healthcare, such as Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans, covered 9.9% of the population, followed by TRICARE (2.4%), and VA and CHAMPVA coverage (1%).³

• Medicaid offers low-cost health coverage to eligible, low-income people, families and children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with disabilities.⁵
• Medicaid benefits are administered by each state, in alignment with federal requirements, and are funded by both states and the federal government.⁶

Who Is on Medicaid?

Twenty-one percent of the U.S. population is enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP¹

• Medicaid covers one in six adults between the ages 19 and 64, two in five children, five in eight nursing home residents and one in three people with disabilities.¹
• An estimated 41% of births in the U.S. were covered by Medicaid as of June 2023.¹
• Maine has the highest percentage of medicare beneficiaries as a share of the total population (26%) and Utah has the lowest percentage (13%).¹

Healthcare expenditures averaged $12,555 per person in the U.S. in 2022⁴

• Healthcare expenditures totaled $4.5 trillion in 2022, significantly higher than pre-pandemic healthcare expenditures which totaled $3.8 trillion in 2019.⁴
• Dental services are the most common type of care adults will forgo or delay due to costs (35%), followed by vision services (25%) and a doctor’s visit (24%).¹ Dental insurance is one way to pay for dental care. Dental insurance plans are typically much cheaper than health insurance, but they also have more limitations and exclusions, too.

• Utah has the lowest healthcare expenses, averaging $7,522 per capita, and Washington, D.C. has the highest healthcare expenses per capita, averaging $14,381.¹

Hospital Costs

• The average hospital-adjusted expenses per inpatient day is $3,025.¹
• Mississippi has the cheapest inpatient hospital expenses per day, averaging $1,425/day, and California averages the most expensive, at $4,337/day.¹

Challenges of Affording Healthcare

41% of U.S. adults say they have debt from medical or dental bills¹

• Nearly 25% of adults reported either they or a member in their household, skipped doses of medicine, cut pills in half or didn’t fill a prescription in the last year due to cost.¹
• Hispanic adults shared the highest percentage of the population who reported not seeing a doctor in 2022 due to cost, at 18.7%, followed by American Indian/Alaska Native adults, who represented 13.8%.¹
• Low-income families and Black and Hispanic families account for larger percentages of adults who reported difficulty affording healthcare costs.¹
• A quarter of respondents (26%) in a 2022 Forbes Advisor survey thought a medical bill under $500 is “unaffordable” if they were paying out of pocket.⁸
• An estimated 40% of Forbes Advisor survey respondents said they used a credit card to pay for a medical bill that was more than $500.⁸

Health Insurance Cost

• The average annual single premium per enrolled employee for employer-based health insurance is $7,590/year in the U.S., with employees contributing $1,637 and employers contributing $5,953 annually.¹
• The average annual deductible per enrolled employee in employer-based health insurance is $3,811/year for families and $1,992/year for single coverage.¹
• For a 30-year-old adult, the average monthly cost for a PPO plan in the ACA marketplace is $512. The same plan for a 60-year-old adult is $1,224/month.⁷

• Life expectancy at birth among the U.S. population in 2022 was 77.5 years, an increase of 1.1 years from 2021.²
• The average infant mortality rate in 2022 was 560.4 infant deaths per 100,000 live births, in an increase of 3.1% from the rate in 2021.²
• The leading causes of infant mortality in the United States in 2021 were congenital malformations, low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome.²

• The total number of deaths in 2022 in America was over 3.2 million, with a per capita rate of 798.8 deaths per 100,000 people.¹
• Life expectancy increased for both women and men in 2022.¹
• Hawaii had the lowest number of deaths per capita (616 per 100,000 people) among the U.S., and West Virginia had the highest (1,116 per 100,000 people).¹
• The top three leading causes of death in 2022 were heart disease, cancer and unintentional injuries.²

• Factors such as the state where you live, how you get coverage, the type of plan and how many people are on your plan can all influence the cost of your health insurance plan.
• ACA plans also factor in your age, the plan’s metal tier (bronze, silver, gold and platinum) and your smoking status. You may also get reduced health insurance costs based on your household size and income if you have an ACA plan.
• You may get reduced health insurance costs based on your household size and income if you have an ACA plan.⁷
• The ACA allows health insurance companies to set higher rates for smokers, costing up to 50% more.⁷
• Standard health insurance can be pricey, but one low-cost option in most states is short-term health insurance. Short-term plans don’t offer the comprehensive coverage found in standard health insurance, but they can be a cheap solution to get some level of health coverage between jobs or if you can’t find a viable stopgap option.

Most organizations begin open enrollment in October or November⁹

• Nine in 10 organizations have an open enrollment period for employees to sign up for, or elect new health benefits, according to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.⁹
• On average, employees spend 18 minutes selecting their benefits, and 42% wait until the last minute to enroll.¹⁰
• Companies with 1000+ employees offer their staff an average of 21 different benefits (including medical, dental, vision and voluntary benefits, such as a health savings account).¹¹
• Companies with between 200 – 999 employees offer their staff an average of 18 different benefits, and small companies, with 200 employees or less, offer their staff an average of 13 different benefits.¹¹ Vision insurance is often a free or cheap coverage option for employees.

When you’re researching how to get health insurance, you’ll discover there are many different types of health insurance plans to choose from. Some offer lower deductibles but higher health insurance premiums. Each plan has different benefits, and figuring out what’s best for you and your medical needs is an important step.

• PPO plans are the most common type of health plan in group health insurance offered by employers, with 47% of covered workers enrolled in PPOs, according to KFF.¹
• HDHPs are the next most common type of health plan, with 29% of covered workers enrolled in this plan type, followed by health maintenance organizations (HMOs) (13%), point-of-service (POS) plans (10%) and conventional plans (1%).¹

Preferred Provider Organization (PPO)

• A PPO health insurance plan allows you to get healthcare outside of your provider network, and see a specialist without a referral.¹²
• Typically have higher health insurance premiums than other health insurance plans.¹²

Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)

• An HMO health insurance plan limits policyholders to seeing only providers in their network.¹²
• You will likely need a referral to see a specialist.¹²
• An HMO won’t cover your care if you see a provider or receive care outside of your network, except for emergency care.¹²
• Typically have lower health insurance premiums than other types of health insurance plans.¹²

Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO)

• An EPO health insurance plan limits policyholders to seeing only providers in their network.¹²
• You likely won’t need a referral to see a specialist.¹²
• An EPO won’t cover your care if you see a provider or receive care outside of your network, except for emergency care.¹²
• Typically pay less in premiums with an EPO than you would with a PPO, but more than you would with an HMO.¹²

Point-of-Service (POS)

• With a POS health insurance plan, you pay less for healthcare services when you visit a medical provider in your network.¹²
• You will need a referral to see someone outside of your network and this will cost you extra funds.¹²
• You will need a referral to see a specialist.¹²

High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP)

• HDHP health insurance plans have a health insurance deductible of at least $1,500 for an individual or $3,000 for a family in 2023.¹²
• Total out-of-pocket costs for in-network health services cannot exceed $7,500 for an individual, or $15,000 for a family in 2023.¹²
• Premiums are typically low with an HDHP, but out-of-pocket costs can be high if you need regular healthcare.¹²
• You can use a health savings account, called an HSA, to pay for healthcare services via an HDHP tax-free.¹²

Sources:

1. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF)
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
3. U.S. Census Bureau
4. Healthcare Systems Tracker
5. Healtcare.gov
6. Medicaid.gov
7. Forbes Advisor: How Much Does Health Insurance Cost?
8. Forbes Advisor Survey, October – November 2022
9. International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans
10. HR Dive
11. PlanSource
12. Forbes Advisor: Types Of Health Insurance Plans