Uninsured rate falls in 2014 to lowest point in at least seven years
The uninsured rate fell to 13.8 percent last year, the lowest annualized rate in the seven years of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index measurement.
In 2013, the uninsured rate was 17.3 percent. From 2013 to 2014, no state had a statistically significant increase in its uninsured rate, according to the poll, which conducted daily surveys in all 50 states.
The following states had the largest reductions in their uninsured rate from 2013 to 2014:
- Arkansas – from 22.5 percent to 11.4 percent
- Kentucky – from 20.4 percent to 9.8 percent
- Oregon – from 19.4 percent to 11.7 percent
- Washington – from 16.8 percent to 10.1 percent
- West Virginia – from 17.6 percent to 10.9 percent
- California – from 21.6 percent to 15.3 percent
- Connecticut – from 12.3 percent to 6.0 percent
- Colorado – from 17.0 percent to 11.2 percent
- Maryland – from 12.9 percent to 7.8 percent
- Montana – from 20.7 percent to 15.8 percent
- New Mexico – from 20.2 percent to 15.3 percent
Each of those states except for Montana expanded their Medicaid program and started a health insurance exchange in 2014. The 21 states that expanded Medicaid and launched an insurance exchange declined 4.8 percentage points compared with a 2.7 percentage point decrease in the other 29 states.
For the seventh consecutive year, Massachusetts (4.6 percent) had the lowest uninsured rate and Texas (24.4 percent) had the highest uninsured rate.
Read results of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index here.
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.