The first comprehensive census data to include a full year of enrollment under President Obama’s signature health law shows that the overall drop in the uninsured rate was more significant for people of color – but that trend did not hold for every metro area. The new information indicates that about 57,000 fewer people were uninsured in 2014 compared to 2013, the Topeka Capital-Journal (http://bit.ly/1QmMpLk ) reported. About 86 percent of people in Chicago had health insurance in 2014, up from 80 percent in 2013.
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The drop in Kansas was not as large as the national average.
More than 1 million Texans signed up for health insurance on the exchange previous year , according to federal tallies at the time, but it is unclear how many of those people were previously uninsured.
Note: Four states that did not expand Medicaid in 2014-Pennsylvania, Indiana, Alaska, and Montana-have done so in 2015, though Montana’s expansion still requires federal approval before it can take effect.
But Indiana still has a higher uninsured rate than its neighboring states, which expanded Medicaid before Indiana.
The report also showed no change in the poverty rate during the year.
Nick Duran, of the nonprofit Enroll America, said the numbers were proof Floridians want “quality, affordable health coverage”.
More than 55 percent – about 175 million people – had employment-based coverage in 2014, about the same as in 2013, while direct purchase coverage increased from 11.4 percent in 2013 to 14.6 percent in 2014, when it covered 46.2 million people.
The Census Bureau’s annual figures on income and poverty, released Wednesday, came as a disappointing surprise to experts, who had expected a second straight year of decline in America’s poor with the improving economy.
Massachusetts had the lowest percentage of uninsured residents, at 3.3.
New Census numbers show the impact expanding Medicaid in states like Ohio has had on the number of people who have health insurance.
Officials attribute the decrease in Florida and around the country to passage of the Affordable Care Act, which expanded health insurance to millions of Americans.
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“But a staggering 672,000 Louisianans were still uninsured, leaving them with limited access to doctors and hospitals and vulnerable to financial calamity in case of an illness or injury”, says LBP, which has long advocated for the state to participate in the Medicaid expansion under the ACA.
