U.S. poverty rate stable as number of uninsured fell

The Census Bureau just released data on poverty, income, and health insurance coverage in 2011. The data is from the Current Population Survey (CPS). According to the report, median household income declined, the poverty rate was not statistically different from the previous year and the percentage of people without health insurance coverage decreased.

The national poverty rate was 15 percent in 2011, with 46.2 million Americans living under the poverty line. The top 5 percent of wage earners saw their incomes rise between 2010 and 2011, while incomes fell for the other 95 percent.

Unlike the last ten years, private health insurance coverage remained steady nationwide. The provisions of the Affordable Care Act allowing young adults to remain on their parents insurance until age 26 seem to be responsible. Medicaid enrollment growth has offset some-but not all- of the losses in private health insurance coverage over the last decade. The program continued to grow in 2011 in response to the slow economic recovery. Combined with a stable private insurance pool, the share of uninsured Americans fell.

Maryland’s average poverty rate between 2010 and 2011 was 10.1% (in the CPS two-year averages are more accurate at the state level). That’s up 2.8 percentage points compared to the average in 2000-2001. This means on average 583,000 Marylanders were in poverty during the last two years. That’s 583,000 too many. Sadly, there were even more Marylanders without health insurance in 2010-2011 (an average of more than 758,000 uninsured).

MBTPI and its partners continue to advocate for policies and programs that assist Marylanders living in or near poverty. More detailed Maryland-specific data will be released next Thursday by the US Census based on the American Community Survey.