Key numbers
Miami-Dade compared with South Florida, the state and the U.S.
In the Census Bureau’s Small Area Health Insurance Estimates for 2024, 17.8% of Miami-Dade residents aged 18 to 64 had no health insurance, 2.3 percentage points above the statewide rate of 15.5%. Palm Beach County was at 18.5% and Broward at 15.9%. Miami-Dade and Palm Beach are close enough that their margins of error overlap, so the data does not say which of the two has the higher rate.
What sets Miami-Dade apart is size. Its 311,961 uninsured working-age adults are more than in any other Florida county. By rate it is tied with Hamilton County for 16th of 67, both at 17.8%; the highest rate in the state was in DeSoto County (27.1%).
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, SAHIE 2024. The U.S. bar is our sum of the 50 state and D.C. estimates.
| Area | Uninsured, ages 18–64 | Margin of error (points) | Number uninsured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miami-Dade County | 17.8% | ±0.7 | 311,961 |
| Broward County | 15.9% | ±0.8 | 195,205 |
| Palm Beach County | 18.5% | ±0.9 | 160,623 |
| Monroe County | 14.7% | ±1.4 | 6,899 |
| Florida | 15.5% | ±0.3 | 2,086,833 |
| U.S. (sum of state estimates) | 11.3% | n/a | 22,583,644 |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Small Area Health Insurance Estimates, 2024. Margins of error are at the 90% confidence level. In 2023 the Miami-Dade rate was 17.5%.
Income makes a large difference. Among Miami-Dade adults aged 18 to 64 with household income at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, 26.4% were uninsured. Statewide, 21.5% of Hispanic adults in the same age group were uninsured (the Census Bureau publishes this breakdown for states, not counties).
Two surveys, two estimates
The CDC’s PLACES project produces its own model-based estimate from a different survey, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. For 2023, PLACES puts Miami-Dade at 25.6% (range 20.2% to 31.0%), 4th highest of Florida’s 67 counties in that dataset, compared with 16.7% in Broward, 14.6% in Palm Beach and 13.5% in Monroe.
So the two sources agree that a large share of working-age adults in Miami-Dade have no coverage, but not on how large, or on how far the county stands out from its neighbors. The Census estimate rests on a much larger survey and is the one we lead with. The PLACES figures are useful for one thing the Census data on this page cannot do: comparing neighborhoods inside the county.
By city and neighborhood
PLACES also models the same measure for each city and census-designated place. Among the 33 places entirely in Miami-Dade with at least 20,000 residents, estimates range from 36.3% in Leisure City to 13.8% in Palmetto Bay. In 16 of them the estimate is above 25%. Hialeah, the county’s second most populous city, is at 34.7%, and the City of Miami at 27.2%.
| Highest estimates | Uninsured, ages 18–64 | Range (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Leisure City | 36.3% | 32.6 to 40.1 |
| Hialeah | 34.7% | 31.7 to 37.7 |
| Hialeah Gardens | 33.0% | 29.2 to 37.0 |
| South Miami Heights | 30.7% | 27.6 to 34.0 |
| Kendall West | 30.4% | 26.9 to 33.8 |
| Homestead | 30.3% | 27.5 to 33.0 |
| Fountainebleau | 29.5% | 26.2 to 32.7 |
| West Little River | 29.0% | 26.2 to 31.9 |
| Tamiami | 28.9% | 25.9 to 32.2 |
| Westchester | 28.5% | 25.4 to 31.6 |
| Lowest estimates | Uninsured, ages 18–64 | Range (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Ives Estates | 16.9% | 14.9 to 19.1 |
| Coral Gables | 15.5% | 13.8 to 17.5 |
| Sunny Isles Beach | 14.4% | 12.6 to 16.4 |
| Aventura | 14.3% | 12.5 to 16.1 |
| Palmetto Bay | 13.8% | 11.9 to 15.7 |
Source: CDC PLACES, 2025 release (2023 survey data), places with 20,000+ residents that lie entirely in Miami-Dade. Ranges are 95% confidence intervals. These levels follow the PLACES model, which runs higher than the Census estimate for the county as a whole, so compare places with each other rather than with the Census figures above.
At the ZIP code level, across 76 ZIP code areas mostly inside Miami-Dade with at least 5,000 residents, the PLACES estimates run from 11.6% (33158) to 39.2% (33030). Every place and ZIP code area is in the downloadable data.
What this means if you are looking for therapy in Miami
- If you have no insurance, you are far from alone. By the Census count, about 312,000 working-age adults in the county are in the same position. Not having coverage should not stop you from asking what care would cost.
- Ask for the self-pay price before you book. A practice should be able to tell you up front. Ours is published on our rates and insurance page: $130 for a 50–60 min individual, couples or family session, in person in Kendall or by telehealth anywhere in Florida, and we have Spanish-speaking counselors.
- If you are uninsured or not using insurance, you have a right to a Good Faith Estimate of expected charges before your visit, under the federal No Surprises Act. Here is how that works.
- Having insurance is not the same as having therapy covered. Check whether your plan covers outpatient mental health and whether the therapist is in network. At our practice, insurance applies to individual counseling, and couples and family sessions are self-pay.
- If cost is the main barrier, community health centers are another option. At federally funded health centers, how much you pay depends on your income, according to HealthCare.gov. You can search for one near you with the HRSA Find a Health Center tool.
Method
- County, state and U.S. figures are from the Census Bureau’s Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) for 2024, ages 18 to 64, all races, both sexes, all incomes, plus the at-or-below-200%-of-poverty cut for Miami-Dade and the Hispanic cut for Florida. SAHIE combines American Community Survey data with administrative records. The U.S. figure is our sum of the uninsured counts and population for the 50 states and D.C.; SAHIE does not publish a national total in these files.
- Second estimate, cities and ZIP codes are from CDC PLACES (2025 release), measure “current lack of health insurance among adults aged 18 to 64 years”, crude prevalence. PLACES models small-area estimates from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (2023) and Census population data.
- Which places count as Miami-Dade: cities and census-designated places that lie entirely in Miami-Dade according to the Census Bureau’s 2020 place-by-county file, and ZIP code tabulation areas with at least half their land area in the county (Census 2020 ZCTA-to-county relationship file).
- The download script, the calculation script and a separate check script that re-reads the headline figures from a different Census file and CDC endpoint are kept with the site’s code, so every number on this page can be reproduced.
Limits
- Both sources are model-based estimates, not counts of every resident. Small differences between areas are often within the margin of error.
- The two sources use different surveys and methods, which is why their Miami-Dade figures differ. Neither is wrong; they measure the question in different ways.
- “Uninsured” means no coverage at the time of the survey. Some people are uninsured for part of the year, which these figures do not show.
- These figures say nothing about whether a plan covers therapy, what it costs, or how easy it is to find a therapist.
- Place estimates for small populations are less reliable, which is why the page lists places of 20,000+ residents and ZIP code areas of 5,000+ residents.
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau, Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE): 2023 and 2024 county and state files, downloaded from the Census Bureau on November 12, 2026.
- CDC, PLACES: Local Data for Better Health, 2025 release: county data, place data and ZIP code (ZCTA) data, 2023 survey year.
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 place-by-county list and 2020 ZCTA-to-county relationship file.
- HealthCare.gov, Where to receive low cost health care in your community.
Cite this study
The data is free to reuse under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 with credit and a link: download the CSV. More studies are on our research page.