Many Children in North Dakota Still Without Health Insurance

The majority of North Dakota children ages 0 to 17 were covered by some form of health insurance in 2002, according to the North Dakota State Data Center.

The Current Population Survey (CPS), a joint project between the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Bureau of the Census, provides annual estimates on the number of people with and without health insurance by selected characteristics. This month’s “Economic Brief” released from the North Dakota State Data Center at North Dakota State University, provides CPS data which focuses on those children ages 0 to 17 without health insurance in North Dakota.

Results from the 2003 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) of the CPS (providing 2002 data), indicate that 7.4 percent of North Dakota children have no health insurance. These data are based on a sample and are subject to sampling variability. The degree of uncertainty for an estimate is represented through the use of a confidence interval.

The confidence interval computed for this estimate can be interpreted roughly as providing 90 percent certainty that the true percentage falls between 5.4 percent and 9.4 percent. This translates to anywhere between 8,000 and 14,000 children without health insurance in North Dakota. Nationally, 11.6 percent of children were without health insurance coverage in 2002.

“From a national perspective, this is good news because North Dakota ranks among the states with the highest proportion of its children covered by health insurance. In addition, the statewide trend in coverage has consistently improved since the late 1990s,” said Richard Rathge, Director of the State Data Center.

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