More health insurance for Michiganders after pandemic

Michiganders are making just as much money but more have health insurance now than before the pandemic, according to census data released Thursday.

"Despite the enormous effects of the pandemic in so many ways, it did not kick the income and poverty numbers in a big way," said Charles Ballard, an economics professor at Michigan State University. "It's a remarkable story in itself, that you have this social and demographic and health earthquake and yet if you squint, you can't see that it did anything to the income and poverty numbers."

In Michigan, the median household income was $63,498 in 2021, according to American Community Survey data. The U.S. median household income was also not statistically different last year compared with 2019, at $69,717.

Despite larger trends, the data released Thursday, for areas with 65,000 or more residents, shows some income gains and losses since 2019:

Grand Rapids and Lansing saw median household income increase between 9% and 12%, respectively, to $59,596 and $48,818.

Troy's income level declined by 17% to just under $100,000.

Berrien and Ottawa counties' household income climbed roughly 8% to $57,535 and $79,116, respectively.

Shiawassee was the only county that experienced a decline; the median household income there dropped by 11% to $51,959 last year.

Questions about income on the ACS are not intended to capture programs introduced or expanded amid the coronavirus pandemic, such as stimulus/Economic Impact Payments, expanded unemployment insurance and the advance Child Tax Credit payments, according to Kirby Posey, Census Bureau statistician.

Comparable annual estimates for 2020 are not available due to data collection issues during the pandemic. The results were released but are considered experimental, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Changing the college mindset

More people living in Michigan reported having a four-year college degree. In 2021, the percentage of Michigan residents with a bachelor's degree or greater increased by 1.7 percentage points to 31.7%, trailing the national rate which increased by 1.9 percentage points to 35%, according to ACS data.

Historically, Michigan, with its high-wage manufacturing jobs, has been an outlier when it comes to the relationship between education and income, said Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future Inc., a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization based in Ann Arbor.

But for the last two decades, we now fit into the national pattern – where low college education means lower income levels, Glazer said. "We really were rich for quite a period of time where college attainment didn't matter. ... now it's the single most important thing."