Health Disparities
Healthy People 2030: Examining Progress in Medical, Dental, and Prescription Drug Insurance Coverage Christina Fennell* Christina Fennell Fennell djc3@cdc.gov
Background: Healthy People is a national initiative to promote health and reduce disease through the setting and tracking of objectives and targets. Now in its fifth decade, the initiative continues to provide a framework for improving the nation’s health. Increasing the percentage of people with medical, dental, and prescription drug insurance are core Healthy People 2030 objectives. This analysis examines progress toward targets and income-specific gaps in these objectives using 2019-2024 National Health Interview Survey data.
Methods: Progress toward targets was measured as the percentage of the targeted change achieved, the change from baseline relative to the difference between baseline and target. Income-specific gaps were measured using the maximal rate difference (MRD), the difference between highest and lowest income-specific rates, and maximal rate ratio (MRR), the ratio of the highest to lowest income-specific rates.
Results: From 2019-2024, the percentage of persons under 65 years with medical insurance improved from 88.0% to 90.1% but did not reach the target of 92.4%. Dental insurance increased from 70.3% to 74.9% but did not reach the target of 75.0%. Prescription drug insurance improved from 82.1% to 84.2% but did not reach the target of 89.1%. The income-specific gaps narrowed over time for some insurance types. For example, the MRD for income groups was 16.7% in 2019 and 13.7% in 2024.
Conclusions: Improvements in total medical, dental, and prescription drug insurance coverage were observed and some income-specific gaps narrowed, but ongoing monitoring is needed.
