Number: HARD-002 Description: Why do so many young people lack health coverage, and does the national trend indicate that it's getting better or worse? Narrative: Articles that deal with the reasons young people go without insurance (unemployment, part time employment, poverty) are on topic. More about the (social/community-based) cost of caring for uninsured individuals when they need emergency health care. What are the recourses for a young person? What is the government doing, or what CAN the government do about this issue? Information about the uninsured elderly population is off-topic. item=purpose, value=Details item=genre, value=Any item=granularity, value=Document item=familiarity, value=2 Mirroring the positive change in the total population, the number and proportion of uninsured children declined from 11.1 million (15.4 percent) in 1998 to 10.0 million (13.9 percent) in 1999. For the Census Bureau, children are 18 years old and younger. Other highlights from the report: - Young adults (18 to 24 years old) remained the least likely of any age group to have health insurance coverage, but their chances of having coverage increased by 1 percentage point to 71.0 percent in 1999. - Although the Medicaid program insured 12.9 million poor people during at least a portion of 1999, 10.4 million poor, or 32.4 percent, had no health insurance of any kind during the year. Both the number and percentage of uninsured poor remained unchanged from 1998. - Among those 18 to 64 years old in 1999, full-time workers were less likely than their part-time counterparts to be without health insurance (16.4 percent versus 22.4 percent). However, just under half 47.5 percent of poor full-time workers were uninsured in 1999, not statistically different from the percentage of poor part-time workers without insurance. - Based on comparisons of two-year averages (1998-1999 versus 1997-1998), the proportion of the population without health insurance fell in 15 states and rose in eight others.