Young, working-age adults may have gotten more health coverage from traditional commercial sources in the third quarter of 2016.
The percentage of adults ages 18 to 29 who had some kind of traditional health coverage in the period running from July 1 through September 30 increased to 63 percent, according to new data from the National Health Interview Survey.
That share was up from 61.2 percent in the second quarter of the year.
The percentage of young adults who had no coverage fell to 13.9 percent, from 16.3 percent. The percentage who had coverage from an Affordable Care Act public exchange plan held steady at 3.9 percent, and the percentage who had coverage from Medicare, Medicaid or another, similar program increased to 24.3 percent from 24 percent.
In 2016, young adults' use of public health plans has been much higher than in 2015. In the third quarter, for example, 24.3 percent were using public plan coverage. That was up from 19.7 percent in the third quarter of 2015.
Because of young adults' increased use of public plan coverage, year-over-year comparisons for their use of private coverage have looked weak. Even though young adults' use of private coverage was higher in the third quarter than the second quarter, it was down from 64.1 percent in the third quarter of 2015.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, conducts the NHIS survey to help HHS run its programs.
