Some form of health insurance covers the vast majority of North Dakota children ages 0 to 17.

Estimates indicate that the 2005 through 2007 three-year average of uninsured children in North Dakota is 9 percent (approximately 13,000 children), which is roughly equivalent to the state’s ninth largest city, Williston.

This month’s “Economic Brief,” a monthly publication from the North Dakota State Data Center at North Dakota State University, focuses on those children ages 0 to 17 without health insurance in North Dakota. The Current Population Survey’s (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC), a joint project between the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau, provides annual estimates of the number of people with and without health insurance by selected characteristics. The CPS ASEC is designed to collect statistically reliable estimates primarily at the national level.

Because state estimates are less reliable (due to relatively small sample sizes that can cause state estimates to fluctuate widely year to year), the Census Bureau recommends using three-year averages to compare estimates across states and two-year averages to evaluate changes in state estimates through time. Although confidence intervals around the estimates can be relatively large for states such as North Dakota, CPS statistics are one way of estimating the number of children at risk.

Three-year averages from the 2005 through 2007 CPS ASEC indicate that while the majority of North Dakota children have health insurance coverage, 9 percent of the state’s children had no form of health insurance. Nationally, 11.2 percent of children were without health insurance coverage.

“It is good news to know that North Dakota is doing better than the national average with regard to providing health insurance for our children,” says Richard Rathge, State Data Center director. “However, it is troubling to know that 13,000 children in our state are left uninsured.”

Comparing all states using three-year average uninsured rates for 2005 through 2007 shows that Texas had the highest proportion of uninsured children in the nation (20.5 percent), while Massachusetts had the lowest (4.7 percent). When examining the two-year averages from 2005 through 2006 and 2006 through 2007, three states had a statistically significant change in the proportion of uninsured children. California, Illinois and Indiana showed a decrease in the proportion of uninsured youth.

NDSU Agriculture Communication