Survey Methods Series - State Health Access Data Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota

In response to demand for understanding technical issues relating to measuring health insurance coverage, SHADAC has developed a series of practice guidelines for health insurance surveys.  These are available for download, below.

 The creation of these reports is a joint project between the SHADAC and a number of state-level analysts with expertise in collecting data on the uninsured, in an effort to improve the quality of data collection and encourage comparability across state-initiated data collection efforts.

Measuring Health Insurance Coverage in Surveys
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A discussion of the considerations related to designing surveys to measure health insurance coverage, highlighting what is known from the literature, as well as lessons learned from state and federal surveys of insurance coverage. The discussion is divided into five principal topics important to consider when measuring health insurance coverage: (1) unit of measurement, (2) reference period, (3) placement and order of health insurance questions, (4) identifying public and private sources of coverage, and (5) other design features. Table 1 summarizes provides a summary of the use of different approaches to these topics taken by in a sample of national and state surveys.

Measuring Race and Ethnicity in Health Insurance Surveys
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This document outlines considerations for researchers who are designing surveys to measure the race and ethnicity of survey respondents. This brief highlights what is known from the literature, federal recommendations as well as lessons learned from state and federal surveys of insurance coverage.

Measuring Income In Health Insurance Surveys
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A discussion of the considerations related to measuring the income of survey respondents in a household telephone survey of health insurance coverage. This document highlights what is known from the literature, as well as lessons learned from state and federal surveys of insurance coverage.

Measuring Adequacy of Coverage
While there is little disagreement about what it means to be uninsured, the question of adequacy of coverage is a matter of impassioned debate. Consequently, there has been little consensus on just what constitutes adequate coverage. The fact that many states are considering offering limited benefits packages in an attempt to extend health insurance coverage underscores the importance of assessing adequacy of coverage. This issue brief summarizes the conceptual and empirical approaches to measuring adequacy of coverage.