Changes to the CPS ASEC Health Insurance Coverage Questions

In 2014, the Census Bureau implemented changes to the CPS ASEC, including a complete redesign of the health insurance questions. The new questions improve upon the previous questionnaire, which was criticized as producing health insurance estimates that were not in line with those produced by other federal surveys or administrative records. The redesigned CPS ASEC is based on over a decade of research, including two national field tests as well as cognitive testing.I The redesign constitutes a “breakin-series” to the historical health insurance estimates, so data users should exercise caution
when comparing estimates from the redesigned CPS ASEC for data year 2013 to estimates from previous years. For a comparison of health insurance over time, see the text box “National and State Changes in Health Insurance Coverage.” For more information on the quality of CPS ASEC health insurance estimates, see Appendix A, “Estimates of Health Insurance Coverage.”