Using the ACS to Measure Health Insurance Coverage (March 26, 2015)

opening slide of webinar

Starting with the 2008 survey, the American Community Survey (ACS) has included a question about health insurance coverage. The ACS provides new opportunities for tracking health insurance coverage over time and comparing insurance patterns across geographic areas and population subgroups. But there are also challenges for data users. In this webinar, Joanna Turner, Senior Research Fellow at the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) provided an overview of health insurance data in the ACS, how it fits into the context of other federal surveys collecting health data, and provided examples of how SHADAC uses these data to inform state health policy. Genevieve Kenney, Codirector and Senior Fellow in the Health Policy Center of the Urban Institute, presented some examples of how ACS health insurance data can be used, along with challenges in working with the ACS coverage data. An archived recording of this webinar is available online.