Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2022 (2024)

FAQs

Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2022? ›

In 2022, most people (92.1 percent) had health insurance coverage at some point during the calendar year (Table 1 and Figure 1). That means 7.9 percent of people were uninsured for the entire calendar year. More people had private health insurance (65.6 percent) than public coverage (36.1 percent).

Highlights. More people were insured in 2022 than 2021. In 2022, 92.1 percent of people, or 304.0 million, had health insurance at some point during the year, representing an increase in the insured rate and number of insured from 2021 (91.7 percent or 300.9 million).

Health insurance: How it protects you from health and financial risks. No one plans to get sick or hurt, but most people need medical care at some point. Health insurance covers these costs and offers many other important benefits. Health insurance protects you from unexpected, high medical costs.

As of Jan. 1, 2019, there is no mandate for health insurance at the federal level. Before 2019, under the ACA, also called Obamacare, U.S. adults who were not otherwise eligible for an exemption were required to have health insurance coverage for themselves and their families.

Health care spending explained

The United States spent $4,464.4 billion on health care in 2022.

Average annual health insurance premiums in 2023 are $8,435 for single coverage and $23,968 for family coverage. These average premiums each increased 7% in 2023. The average family premium has increased 22% since 2018 and 47% since 2013.

More adults had health insurance in 2022 than in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. An estimated 304 million, or 92.1%, Americans had health insurance at some point in 2022, which is slightly higher than the 300.9 million, or 91.7% of people, who had health insurance at some point in 2021.

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The data are presented by type of service, sources of funding, and type of sponsor. U.S. health care spending grew 4.1 percent in 2022, reaching $4.5 trillion or $13,493 per person. As a share of the nation's Gross Domestic Product, health spending accounted for 17.3 percent.

As of 2022, more than 100 million Americans carried debt related to obtaining health care, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

If you don't have health insurance, those stories can sure get you thinking, Do I need health insurance? The answer—yes! Health insurance has a reputation for being expensive and confusing, but it can also be the only thing standing between you and financial disaster if you ever need medical care.

What happens in USA if no health insurance? ›

If you don't have health insurance, you're at much greater risk of accumulating medical bills that you may not be able to pay. In a worst-case scenario, you could be sued and have your wages garnished. You might even be forced into bankruptcy.

Lack of insurance coverage, high costs, and poor outcomes are well-documented problems in the US health care system, and policies to address them have been hotly debated for decades. However, complexity is another underappreciated problem that hinders access and affordability and is more difficult to quantify.

While there is no federal requirement for adults to have health insurance, it's essential to consider the importance of having coverage to protect your health and finances in the event of unexpected medical expenses.

The United States ranks 11th in the 2022 World Index of Healthcare Innovation, down from 6th in 2021 and 4th in 2020.

Universal health care would lower costs and prevent medical bankruptcy. A June 2022 study found the United States could have saved $105.6 billion in COVID-19 (coronavirus) hospitalization costs with single-payer universal health care during the pandemic.

There are many possible reasons for that increase in healthcare prices: The introduction of new, innovative healthcare technology can lead to better, more expensive procedures and products. The complexity of the U.S. healthcare system can lead to administrative waste in the insurance and provider payment systems.

uninsurance has been attributed to a number of factors, including rising health care costs, the economic downturn, an erosion of employer-based insurance, and public program cutbacks. Developing effective strategies for reducing uninsurance requires understanding why people lack insurance coverage.

We estimate a total US uninsured population of about 27 million in 2024, of which 8.6 million are noncitizens.

The number of Health insurers filing the health statement type with the NAIC increased to 1,096 from 1,031 in 2019.

This project found that health care debt is a wide-reaching problem in the United States and that 41% of U.S. adults currently have some type of debt due to medical or dental bills from their own or someone else's care, including about a quarter of adults (24%) who say they have medical or dental bills that are past ...