Hospital and surgical insurance coverage, United States-1968

Since 1959 information on the extent of health insurance coverage in the United States has been collected periodically in the ongoing Health Interview Survey, Between the years 1959 and 1968, the latter year being the year during which the data presented in this report were collected, modern health insurance has become an integral part of the population's economic and social structure; the highlight was the enactment of the Medicare legislation in July 1966. According to estimates derived from the interview data, the percentage of persons covered with some form of hospital insurance increased from 67 percent in 1959 to 70 percent in 1963. By 1967, due to the extension of coverage to essentially all persons 65 years and older, thepercentage of the civilian, noninstitutional population with insurance that would pay for hospitalization had reached approximately 80 percent. Now that virtually all persons 65 years and older have hospital insurance coverage and well over 90 percent of them also have Medicare insurance (Part B) that pays for surgery andother physician care, the emphasis on extent of coverage has shifted to the insurance status of younger persons. For this reason the major part of this report is devoted to the health insurance coverage and the demographic characteristics of persons under 65 years.