The national uninsured rate held steady at 7.9% in 2025, with 26.7 million people having no health coverage, according to Census Bureau data released Sept. 15.
Beneath the unchanged national rate, the coverage mix shifted as Medicaid enrollment fell by 0.5 percentage points and seniors’ employer-sponsored and supplemental private coverage fell 2.8 points combined, while Medicare grew by 0.6 points.
The report analyzed data from approximately 88,000 households surveyed between February and April.
Four notes:
- Employment-based insurance remained the dominant form of coverage in the country, covering 53.5% of the population for some or all of 2025. Medicare followed at 20.1%, Medicaid at 17.1%, and direct-purchase coverage at 10.5%.
- Medicaid coverage fell by 0.5 percentage points while Medicare coverage rose by 0.6 percentage points, leaving the overall public coverage rate unchanged at 35.8%. The Census Bureau attributed the Medicare increase in part to growth in the 65+ population rather than a change in the share of older adults enrolled.
- Private coverage for adults 65 and older fell 2.8 percentage points. The decline was split roughly evenly between a 1.5 percentage-point drop in employment-based coverage and a 1.4 percentage-point drop in direct-purchase coverage among seniors. About 44.7% of people 65 and older reported holding more than one type of coverage concurrently during the year.
- Adults ages 19 to 25 continued to have the highest uninsured rate among all age groups at 14.5%.
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