A greater percentage of the U.S. population—21.8%--lost health coverage in a 12-month period from 2001 to 2004 compared to 1983 through 1986, when 19.8% lost their health insurance, according to a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine. But people regained insurance quicker during the 2001 to 2004 period, with 61.7% obtaining new insurance after 1 year and 79.7% receiving health coverage within two years. (Twenty years ago, 59.2% of the uninsured replaced their health insurance within 1 year, and 73.8% obtained insurance within two years.) The shorter period of uninsurance earlier this decade, however, is due to a 12% increase in the uninsured transitioning to public insurance compared to the 1980s, according to the study’s authors.
