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Bureau of Labor Statistics > Office of Survey Methods Research > Publications > Browse Research Papers

Current Population Survey: Developing and evaluating a pandemic-related question on unmet medical care needs

Mary Dorinda Allard and Anne E Polivka

Abstract

In May 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics temporarily added several pandemic-related questions to its monthly survey of households, the Current Population Survey. While the questions largely related to the impact of the pandemic on the labor force, one question, which was contributed by the National Center for Health Statistics, focused on unmet medical needs due to lack of access to health care. This paper will describe the development and testing process for this unmet-care question, which was fielded from May 2020 to October 2020. It also will compare estimates from the question to those from a similar question in the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey. Finally, it will explore possible reasons for the sharp differences in the estimates of unmet care from these two surveys.