Health Insurance Disparities Across Occupations: Highest Uninsured Rates in 2024 Revealed
TL/DR –
The uninsured rate varies widely across different occupations, with the lowest rates seen in architecture and engineering (2.5%) and the highest in farming, fishing, and forestry (29.4%). Despite working in the field, healthcare support workers have a higher likelihood of being uninsured (10.5%) compared to healthcare practitioners and technical workers (3.8%). Four occupations have higher uninsured rates than nonworkers, while workers in transportation and material moving occupations have an uninsured rate similar to nonworkers but represent the most significant number of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses.
Understanding Varying Uninsured Rates Across Occupations
The percentage of uninsured individuals vary vastly across different occupations, with architecture and engineering fields boasting the lowest rate at 2.5%, while farming, fishing and forestry occupations report the highest at 29.4% – a significant difference of 26.9 percentage points. In contrast, the disparity between full-time and part-time workers aged 19 to 64 in 2024 was only 4.6 percentage points.
Workers in computer and mathematical occupations were 77% less likely to be without insurance (2.7%) compared to those in production roles (11.8%) and installation, maintenance, and repair positions (11.9%). Furthermore, even employment in healthcare didn’t guarantee insurance coverage, with healthcare support workers (10.5%) twice as likely to lack insurance compared to healthcare practitioners and technicians (3.8%).
Occupations Surpassing Nonworker Uninsured Rates
A comparative analysis reveals four sectors recording higher uninsured rates than nonworkers aged 19 to 64 (14.7%):
- Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations displayed an uninsured rate of 29.4% – 14.7 percentage points higher.
- Construction and extraction workers had an uninsured rate of 27.8% – 13 percentage points higher.
- Food preparation and serving related workers had a 22.0% uninsured rate – 7.3 percentage points higher.
- Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations had an uninsured rate of 21.9% – 7.2 percentage points higher.
Interestingly, transportation and material moving occupations, including truck drivers and freight movers, had an uninsured rate (14.9%) similar to nonworkers.
Risks and Insurance Status Among Transport Workers
Despite accounting for only 7.4% of all workers in 2024, transportation and material moving occupations reported the highest number of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses requiring at least one day off work. They represented 22% of all cases (2.25 million), as per the 2022 data from the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illness.
—
Read More Health & Wellness News ; US News