Data Challenge: Uninsured in America

Tracy Flood
Dec 16, 2025
2 min read

Updated: Dec 19, 2025

Workshop Chapters

Recorded live Dec 9 2025, timestamps are below

00:00:00:00 Intro
00:01:24:11 Disclosure & Background
00:03:42:09 Outline & Learning Objectives
00:08:19:06 Why are we here?
00:09:57:20 The Plan
00:10:47:14 Data Hunt for Uninsured Rates
00:23:54:00 DATA CHALLENGE START
00:34:56:20 PORTFOLIO PROJECT 1: Infogram
00:34:56:20 PORTFOLIO PROJECT 2: 1-Pager for Elected Official

🎯 The Data Challenge

Create a shareable portfolio project highlighting uninsured rates in your region.

🧰 🛠️ Inventory

To succeed, here's what you'll need.

⏰ Time. 20-40 minutes
📊 Data
- Data source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 5-Year Estimates, 2023, Table S2701, retrieved from: https://data.census.gov/table/ACSST5Y2023.S2701?q=uninsured
- 3 indicators:
  - Total Population (#)
  - Population that is Uninsured (#)
  - Percent Uninsured (%)
🎨 Template Kits
- Select one:
  - Portfolio Project 1. Infogram (see below, left)
  - Portfolio Project 2. 1-Pager for Elected Official (see below, right)

Why it Matters

Health insurance is an important social determinant of health and lack of health insurance has been linked to poor health outcomes including a higher risk of premature mortality (Woolhandler & Himmelstein, 2017).

Data Makes a Difference

Local data can be powerful if shared with those who can act upon it. That is why we encourage sharing information with policymakers (Portfolio Project 2) and/or raising awareness with your network (Portfolio Project 1).

Step-By-Step

Please see video for a step-by-step guide. Note: This challenge can be completed any time without the "Challenge Tracker Spreadsheet" that is referenced in the videos. Each Canva design contains a mini spreadsheet of the indicators and phrases needed to fill in the template. The initial workshop was in Dec 2025.