On July 27, 2009, the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) hosted a conference call featuring Robin Cohen, PhD, senior statistician in the Division of Health Interview Statistics at the National Center for Health Statistics. Dr. Cohen discussed early release findings from the 2008 National Health Interview Survey, published in the June 2009 report, "Health Insurance Coverage: Early Release of Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, 2008," by Robin A. Cohen and Michael E. Martinez (click here to access the report). The report included information for 20 states with sample sizes large enough to form reliable estimates. The call also included discussion of the report, "Health Insurance Coverage Trends, 1959-2007: Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey," which presents long-term insurance coverage trends of the non-elderly (0-64 years) (click here to access the report).

Fifteen state health policy and data analysts, representing 8 of the 20 states included in the early release report, participated in the conference call.