A picture of four small children in a row
target imageTarget Population image AHRQ User Liaison Program
  Skip Navigation | Home Target Population National Data for State Est. Advantages/Limitations of CPS

previous page Previous  -  Next next page
top of nav bar space

Target Population Link Outreach Enrollment link Benefit Design and Service Delivery link Cost Sharing Link Crowd Out Link Monitoring and Evaluation link
Space Saver Image Site map link link legend link questions and comments acronyms list workshop materials link how to use this site link

Advantages and Limitations of CPS

Advantages of the Current Population Survey (CPS)

  • It is conducted every year and the methodology is consistent from year to year (and from State to State), which facilitates its use in making comparisons over time.
  • 48,000 households are interviewed each month and the response rate is unusually high (90 percent). This broad national sample makes national-level estimates reasonably reliable.
  • The large percentage of in-person interviews improves coverage and reliability (25 percent of the data is collected in person and 75 percent by phone).
  • A rotating sample is utilized in which half of the respondents of each year’s survey are interviewed again the following year. This is useful in measuring changes over time.

arrow up

Limitations of the CPS

  • State-level estimates of the uninsured in the annual March CPS are unreliable due to small State sample sizes:
    • Approximately 2,000-3,000 households are needed in a State sample to generate reliable estimates of subpopulations such as uninsured children below 200 percent of the Federal poverty level. In the CPS, there are only 11 States in which the sample size is more than 1,000 households. This results in large margins of error, especially for sub-populations.
  • The CPS may overestimate the number of full-year uninsured persons. Although the survey asks whether the respondent has been uninsured for the entire past 12-month period, participants may respond yes if they have been uninsured at any point during that period.
  • The CPS may underestimate the number of people on Medicaid. Based on studies conducted by the Urban Institute, HCFA (now CMS) administrative data show 20 to 30 percent more Medicaid enrollees than the CPS responses indicate. It has been speculated that respondents do not think of Medicaid as health insurance and that the data reflect this perception.
  • The CPS does not directly ask people whether they are uninsured. The survey asks about coverage of specific types of insurance and respondents who answer no to all of the categories are considered uninsured. There is concern that some respondents do have insurance, but were listed as uninsured.

arrow up

Related Questions

Give me an example of this

What led to this?

What other methodological issues are discussed?

Who presented this material?

arrow up