State-specific prevalence of lapses in health-care-insurance coverage--United States, 1995.

Lack of health-care-insurance coverage has been associated with decreased use of preventive health services, delay in seeking medical care, and poor health status. In 1995, an estimated 30.5 million persons aged 18-64 years in the United States did not have health insurance. To determine state-specific estimates of the prevalence of persons aged 18-64 who reported either short-term (i.e., <12 months) or long-term (i.e., > or = 12 months) lapses in health-care coverage, CDC analyzed data from the 1995 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). This report summarizes the results of that analysis and indicates that among adults who reported having no health insurance in 1995, most were without insurance for > or = 1 year and that long-term lapses were more prevalent among men than women.