Healthcare and accessibility in Erie County

Healthcare Insurance and Access

Analysis Categories

What does this measure?

Population with No Healthcare and those who reported needing a doctor but not being able to because of cost (within one year) by age, sex, educational attainment, and income levels. Banded in 3 year increments since 2011 for both Erie County and Pennsylvania.

Why is this important?

Health insurance is critical to accessing medical care and financial stability. People without insurance may delay necessary care and forgo preventive care altogether, which can lead to more serious and costly medical problems in the future. A major illness or injury can financially ruin an uninsured family.

How is Erie County doing?

Age

The population getting no healthcare insurance among ages 18 – 44 is equal for Erie County and the state at 13% for 2018-2020 year band. The residents with no healthcare insurance has increased overall the state and the county for all the age groups.

Educational Attainment

The health insurance coverage by educational attainment for erie county has 5% difference in residents who are high school graduates whereas the Pennsylvania state average is 15%. The reported populations who were not able to afford a necessary doctors visit were lower in Erie County as compared to PA, 1% lower for high school graduates and higher by 3% for residents with some college degrees. 

Income

In Erie County, residents who reported income less than $25,000 were most likely on average to not be covered by healthcare insurance and not be able to afford a necessary doctors visit (16%). The percentage of people not being able to afford a doctor when needed is higher for Erie county in comparison to PA except for the income ranged between $25,000-$49,000.

Over Time

Both lack of health insurance coverage and the inability to afford a needed doctor visit dropped  14% to 111% through year band 2014-to-2016 and 2018-to-2020 for Erie county. The rate increased amongst Erie residents whom could not afford a necessary doctors visit to 10%. A note to the limited scope of these variables' trends: according to the PA Department of Health, "In 2011, a new weighting methodology was adopted along with the inclusion of cell phones in the survey. Due to this change, statistics for years prior to 2011 should not be compared to statistics from 2011 to present.". 

EVS Indicators

EVS analyzes the data in each topic category using indicators, which report a targeted and digestible number, rate, or amount to represent Erie County as a whole. While this does not cover every aspect of the topic, it assists in establishing Erie's performance relative to the prior year(s). The indicators for the Health: Healthcare topic are:

This indicator measures the percentage of the total Erie County population that has health insurance for tha latest data set. The trend for Insured with Healthcare was up and better for the 2017 to 2019 period with a reported increase of +2.0% within the County. 

 

This indicator measures the percentage of the total Erie County population who needed to see a doctor but could not afford to in the last 2 years, for latest data set. The trend for Inability to Afford Needed Doctor Visit in the Past 2 Years was up and worse for the 2017 to 2019 period with a reported increase of +1.0% within the County.

How does Erie compare to its Peers?


How does Erie compare to Pennsylvania?

About this Data

Data from the PA Department of Health as of 2/2023.