Texas Uninsured Rate Falls, But State Now Has Largest Number Of People Without Coverage

Dallas Morning News: More In Texas Lack Health Insurance Than In Any Other State
Texas, which still has the biggest share of its population uninsured, now has more people without health coverage than any other state. Last year, Texas had just more than 5 million residents without health coverage — eclipsing California, which for many years had the most but saw its number dip below 4.8 million, according to federal figures released Wednesday. One expert cited Democratic-controlled California’s decision to expand Medicaid and heavily promote its own state-run private health insurance marketplace. GOP-led Texas did neither. (Garrett, 9/17)

The Texas Tribune: Texas' Uninsured Rate Dips, Remains Highest In Nation
For the first time in more than a decade, Texas’ uninsured rate dipped below 20 percent, analysts said Wednesday following the release of U.S. Census data. ... More than 1 million Texans signed up for health insurance on the exchange last year, according to federal tallies at the time, but it is unclear how many of those people were previously uninsured. ... The federal survey found 7 percent of Texas’ low-income children, defined as living with incomes below twice the federal poverty level, remain uninsured. (Walters, 9/16)

The Texas Tribune: A Look At How Texas' Uninsured Rate Has Fallen
Some of the most significant drops were in the state's biggest cities. The San Antonio metro area's uninsured rate dropped by nearly 4 points, while in Houston and Dallas, the drop was just over 3 points. Austin was an exception, falling less than 2 percentage points. Disparities persisted among age groups as well. Of young adults ages 19 to 25, the percentage of uninsured Texans fell from nearly 39 percent to 33 percent. The Affordable Care Act allows many people to remain on their parents' insurance plan until they turn 26. Eleven percent of Texas children younger than 18 are uninsured. Among Texans older than 65, that figure is 2 percent. (Walter and McCullough, 9/17)

Houston Public Media: Uninsured Rate Drops 14% In Texas, But Still The Highest Rate In US
For years, Texas has had the notorious distinction of having the highest percentage of uninsured residents in the entire country. But in raw numbers, California always had more uninsured people, because it has more people in general. But now Texas is the worst of all 50 states on that metric, too. (Feibel, 9/16)

Louisville Courier-Journal: Report: Ky. Sees Biggest Drop In Uninsured
Kentucky saw the largest drop in percentage of residents who do not have health insurance than any other state between 2013 and 2014, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The number of Kentuckians without health insurance fell by 250,000 in 2014, the report says. And the percent of the state’s population without health insurance dropped from 14.3 percent to 8.5 percent. (Loftus, 9/16)

The Associated Press: Kentucky Leads Nation In Drop Of Uninsured
Kentucky was one of 31 states that chose to increase the number of people eligible to receive taxpayer-funded health insurance in 2013. Since then, Kentucky has added about 400,000 people to its Medicaid program and has been held up as an example by President Barack Obama of the success of his health care law. (Beam, 9/16)

Kaiser Health News: In Colorado, Health Insurance Surges But Cost Still A Concern
On Wednesday, the Census Bureau gave Obamacare some good news: the uninsurance rate in the country dropped to 10.4 percent in 2014, down from 13.3 percent in 2013. Colorado may be doing even better. According to a survey from the nonprofit, nonpartisan Colorado Health Institute, the number of Coloradans who have health insurance has reached a historic high. When the Affordable Care Act launched two years ago, CHI found that about one in seven of the state’s residents, or 14 percent, were uninsured. Its latest data show that figure is 6.7 percent. (Daley, 9/16)

The Columbus Post-Dispatch: Obamacare Credited With Cutting Rate Of Uninsured
New census data suggest that the Affordable Care Act — not the recovering economy — deserves the lion’s share of credit for cutting the rate of people who were uninsured last year in Ohio and across the country. (Sutherly, 9/17)

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Health Insurance Enrollment Up Across In Pennsylvania
Fewer Pennsylvanians are going without health insurance as the Affordable Care Act helps push more coverage into struggling communities, federal data show. About 8.5 percent of the state population was uninsured last year, down from 9.7 percent, or roughly 1.2 million people, in 2013, according to an annual report Wednesday from the U.S. Census Bureau. (Smeltz, 9/16)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Kansas And Missouri Lag In Reducing Numbers Of Uninsured
Both Kansas and Missouri are underperforming when it comes to reducing the number of uninsured within their borders. From 2013 to 2014, all 50 states recorded statistically significant reductions in their uninsured rates mostly because of the implementation of key provisions of the Affordable Care Act, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. But most states saw bigger reductions than those posted in Kansas and Missouri. (McLean, 9/16)

Raleigh News & Observer: Report: NC Uninsured Rate Fell 13% In ACA’s First Year
North Carolina’s uninsured rate dropped 13 percent in 2014, the first year that most Americans were required to have health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. ... Last year, about 357,000 people in North Carolina enrolled in an individual insurance policy, and most qualified for federal subsidies to offset the cost of the coverage. As a result, the state uninsured rate dropped from 19.9 percent in 2013 to 17.3 percent in 2014. (Murawski, 9/16)

The Detroit Free Press: Rates Of Uninsured Drop In Michigan, Across The U.S.
The percentage of Michigan residents without health insurance continued to decline last year, according to data released today by the Census Bureau. Last year, 8.5% of Michigan residents were uninsured compared to 11% in 2013. ... All 50 states and the District of Columbia showed a decrease in the rate of uninsured people last year, with declines ranging from a 0.4 percentage point drop in Massachusetts to a 5.8 percentage point drop in Kentucky. (Tanner, 9/16)

Arizona Republic: Arizona's Uninsured Rate Drops With Affordable Care Act
Arizona was among states with the largest drops in the uninsured rate last year, as 215,000 Arizonans gained health coverage during the first year of the federal health-care law’s health-insurance expansion, according to a federal report released Wednesday. The Census Bureau reported that Arizona’s uninsured rate dropped to 13.6 percent in 2014, down from 17.1 percent in 2013. (Alltucker, 9/16)

Salt Lake City: Fewer People Are Without Health Insurance — Is It The Obamacare Effect?
Utah's share of residents without health insurance dipped for a fourth consecutive year in 2014, but it remains above the national rate, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday. The latest numbers indicate 12.5 percent of Utahns were uninsured last year, compared to 10.4 percent nationwide. About 36 million people across the country do not have insurance, the Census Bureau said, with about 365,523 of them in Utah. One advocate for the poor tied Utah's numbers directly to the state Legislature's controversial delay in expanding health programs for low-income residents. (Semerad, 9/16)

The Connecticut Mirror: Census: CT Uninsured Rate Down To 6.9 Percent
Connecticut’s uninsured rate dropped below 7 percent after the major provisions of the federal health law took effect last year, according to Census estimates released Wednesday. Uninsured rates fell in all 50 states and the District of Columbia from 2013 to 2014, and enrollment growth was highest in Medicaid and individually purchased private insurance – the two types of coverage most directly affected by Obamacare. (Levin Becker, 9/16)

Georgia Health News: State Sees Decline In Rate Of Uninsured People
Georgia’s uninsured rate in 2014 fell by three percentage points, to 15.8 percent, mirroring a national trend linked to new coverage from the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday. (Miller, 9/16)

Indianapolis Star: Indiana’s Uninsured Rate Drops, But Not As Much As Nation
The share of Hoosiers without health insurance fell from 14 percent to 11.9 percent last year, after implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday. But Indiana still has a higher uninsured rate than its neighboring states, which expanded Medicaid before Indiana. (Groppe, 9/16)

The Oregonian: Oregon's Uninsured Rate Plunged In 2014, Census Says
Oregon saw one of the largest drops in the nation of the number of people who lacked health coverage last year, new U.S. Census numbers show. The portion of Oregonians who lacked insurance the entire year dropped to 9.7 percent last year, down from 14.7 percent the year before. That means that, in theory, more people have access to health care. (Budnick, 9/16)

Minnesota Public Radio: Rate Of Uninsured Minnesotans Falls To 5.9 Percent
New U.S. census statistics show that the percentage of Minnesotans without health insurance dropped sharply from 2013 to 2014. In 2013, 8.2 percent of Minnesotans lacked health insurance. By 2014, that number had dropped to 5.9 percent. (Zdechlik, 9/16)

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Census Report: Levels Of Uninsured Fell Dramatically In U.S., Wisconsin
An estimated 8.5 million people nationwide, including 100,000 in Wisconsin, gained health insurance coverage in 2014, the first year that key provisions of the Affordable Care Act went into effect, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The estimates released Wednesday show a historic drop in the uninsured rate to 11.7% nationally and to 7.3% in Wisconsin. (Boulton, Glauber and Crowe, 9/16)