Highest Uninsured States Shun Health Care Reform Law

Medicaid expansion and state health exchanges are minimal in states with high rates of uninsured residents since the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

As states struggle with implementing the Affordable Care Act, a Gallup study has found that those with high uninsured rates are the least likely to expand Medicaid and establish state-based exchanges.

Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida and Louisiana are the states with the highest percentage of uninsured adult residents. Arkansas is the only state in the group to expand Medicaid and create an exchange in the health insurance marketplace, according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index for January through December 2013.

Additionally, eight of the 12 states with the highest uninsured rates do not have Medicaid expansion or their own exchange.

Nationwide, 17.3 percent of adults reported they did not have health insurance in 2013. The rate has increased from its level in 2008, 14.8 percent.

Twenty-seven percent of residents in Texas do not have health insurance, followed by 22.5 percent in Arkansas, according to Gallup. Arizona, Kentucky and North Carolina have uninsured rates of 20.4 percent. Texas continues to have the highest rate of residents without health insurance for the sixth year in a row, while Massachusetts has the lowest at 4.9 percent.

States with the lowest uninsured rates also include Hawaii (7.1 percent), Vermont (8.9 percent), Minnesota (9.5 percent) and Iowa (9.7 percent). Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Kansas have low rates and have not expanded Medicaid or added an exchange.

Overall, 16.2 percent of adults report they lack health insurance in states that do have Medicaid expansion and state exchanges, compared to 18.7 percent of adults in states with one option or neither.

source

full Gallup report