Rate of people without health insurance falls in all 50 states

Clarification: Currently, 19 states have not expanded Medicaid. Twenty-six states had not expanded Medicaid in 2013 and 2014, which is the time frame analyzed in the Census data.

The rate of Americans without health insurance saw its biggest drop since the Census started collecting the data in 2008.

The rate in 2014 fell 2.8 percentage points to 11.7 percent. Until the recent drop, the national uninsured rate had stayed relatively stable between 14 percent and 16 percent.

The U.S. Census Bureau released its 2014 data Wednesday about health insurance coverage, poverty and income. This was the first time it included data after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

In all 50 states, the percentage of uninsured people dropped.

The Kansas uninsured rate dropped 2 percentage points to 10.2 percent; the national average is 11.7 percent.

Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured residents (19.1 percent); Massachusetts had the lowest (3.3 percent).

In general, states that did not expand Medicaid eligibility, like Kansas, had higher uninsured rates than states with Medicaid expansion. Also, states with Medicaid expansion saw greater decreases in their uninsured rates than non-expansion states. Medicaid is a federal and state health insurance program for low-income and disabled residents.

The percentage of uninsured people in poverty dropped almost twice as fast in states that expanded Medicaid as in those that didn’t.

“The big message, to me, is it confirms that the real difference here is Medicaid expansion,” said Sheldon Weisgrau, director of the Health Reform Resource Project for the Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved.

Weisgrau said higher uninsured rates from not expanding Medicaid would translate to providers stuck with bills from people who can’t pay, businesses with less-healthy employees, and residents who delay services and medications they need.

He cited last week’s announcement of a hospital closure in Independence as a preview of what’s to come.

“This has real implications,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s taking something like a hospital closure to make this real to our legislators, but this is real, and it’s unfortunate it’s come to this.”

He said he wants legislators to look at the data and ease their political rhetoric about the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion.

“The trends here are very, very clear and have been very clear for several years,” he said. “As long as Kansas chooses not to expand Medicaid, we will fall farther and farther behind other states in the percentage of the population that has insurance.”

Twenty-six states did not expand Medicaid.

Clark Shultz, director of government and public affairs for the Kansas Insurance Department, said he’s glad the to see the uninsured rate fell.

“We’re always glad when we see that trend,” he said.

Nationally, low-income households experienced the largest changes in health insurance coverage. The uninsured rate for household with incomes from $25,000 to $49,999 dropped by nearly 5 percent between 2013 and 2014 – from 19 percent to 14.1 percent. The uninsured rate for households with income less than $25,000 dropped 4.3 percentage points in the same time frame – from 20.9 percent to 16.6 percent.

Demographically, Asians and Hispanics witnessed the greatest drops in uninsured rates nationally from 2013 to 2014 with 4.5 percent decreases. Blacks closely followed with a 4.1 percent decrease. Whites and non-Hispanics saw the least-significant changes with a 2.1 percent decrease of uninsured.

This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 1:48 PM with the headline "Rate of people without health insurance falls in all 50 states."