“In 2017, most people (91.2 percent) had health insurance coverage at some point during the calendar year (Table 1 and Figure 1). More people had private health insurance (67.2 percent) than government coverage (37.7 percent).10

“Employer-based insurance was the most common subtype of health insurance in the civilian, noninstitutionalized population (56.0 percent), followed by Medicaid (19.3 percent), Medicare (17.2 percent), direct-purchase insurance (16.0 percent), and military health care (4.8 percent) (Table 1).

“The percentage of people covered by any type of health insurance in 2017 was not statistically different from the percentage in 2016. The percentage of people covered by private health insurance or either of the two subtypes of private health insurance (employment-based and direct-purchase) also did not statistically change between 2016 and 2017.

“Between 2016 and 2017, the percentage of people with government health insurance increased by 0.5 percentage points, to 37.7 percent in 2017 (Table 1).11 Of the three subtypes of government health insurance, both military health care and Medicare coverage rates increased between 2016 and 2017. The percentage of people covered by military health care increased by 0.2 percentage points to 4.8 percent in 2017. The rate of Medicare coverage increased by 0.6 percentage points to 17.2 percent in 2017. This increase was partly due to growth in the number of people aged 65 and over.”

Source: Berchick, Edward R., Emily Hood, and Jessica C. Barnett, Current Population Reports, P60-264, Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2017, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 2018. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2018/demo/p60-264.html