Survey: Educated Women Buy More Individual Health Coverage

But 72% of the women with individual health coverage had attended college, compared with just 64% of the women with employer-sponsored coverage.

Health status of women who bought their own coverage and women who got coverage from employers was similar: 88% of the women in both groups said they were in good, very good or excellent health.

But the women who bought their own health insurance were considerably older than the women insured by employers. About 55% of the women who bought their own coverage were between the ages of 45 and 64, compared with just 41% of the women who had employer-sponsored coverage.

Only 1% of the women incomes below the federal poverty level owned individual health insurance, but penetration of individual coverage was similar at other income levels. The penetration rate was 5% for women with family incomes ranging between 100% and 199% of the federal poverty level; 5% for women with family incomes between 200% and 299% of the federal poverty level; and 6% for women with family incomes over 300% of the federal poverty level.

A total of 5% of all survey participants had individually purchased health coverage, compared with about 8% of the men, perhaps because women were more likely to have Medicaid health coverage.