Health News
- Kentucky Had The Largest Decrease, From 2013 To 2014, In Percentage Of Residents Without Health Insurance
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Kentucky led the nation in the largest drop in the percentage of residents without health insurance from 2013 to 2014, according to a report released Sept. 16 by the U.S. Census Bureau. The percentage of uninsured...
- Economic Upturn Boosts Share Of Kentuckians On Employer-based Health Coverage; Health Reform Boosts Number On Public Plans
Half of Kentucky's working-age adults now get health insurance through their employers, up from 37 percent two years ago, reversing a downward trend that began with the Great Recession. Meanwhile, under federal health reform, many more Kentuckians...
- Kentuckians With Health Insurance Are More Likely To Have Heard About Kynect Than Those Without Insurance, Poll Finds
The 10 percent of Kentuckians who remain without health insurance are less likely to have heard much about Kynect, the state health-insurance exchange created under the federal health-reform law, than those who have insurance. But overall, the uninsured...
- Poll: Kynect Considered A Success, But Voters Haven't Embraced It, And They Still Disapprove Of The Affordable Care Act
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News A new poll again indicates that Kentuckians marginally approve of the state health-insurance exchange created under the federal health-reform law, but clearly disapprove of the law itself. The poll, taken Aug. 7-10, surveyed...
- 28% Of Ky. Adults 18-64 Say They Lack Health Coverage; 41% Lacked It Sometime In Last Year; Employer Coverage Down Since '08
Nearly three in 10 working-age adults in Kentucky are not covered by any form of health insurance, and the number who get health insurance from their employer, or their spouse?s employer, has plummeted since 2008, the first year of the Great Recession,...
Health News
Kentucky's uninsured rate continues to drop; now 9 percent
The share of Kentuckians who have no health coverage has dropped to 9 percent, according to the latest data from The Gallup Organization. That makes Kentucky second, following Arkansas, among the states in the percentage of formerly uninsured who now have insurance, either with private insurance or the federal-state Medicaid program.
In 2013, prior to implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Kentucky's uninsured rate was 20.4 percent. The rate dropped to 9.8 percent in 2014 and even further to 9 percent during the first half of 2015, according to the poll. Nationally, the uninsured rate fell from 17.3 percent in 2013 to 11.7 percent in the first half of 2015.
Most of the states with the highest reduction in their percentage of uninsured rates were states that chose to expand Medicaid, establish a state-based marketplace exchange or state-federal partnership, according to the poll results. States that enacted both of these reforms saw a 44 percent reduction in their uninsured rates since 2013, compared to a 28 percent reduction in states that did one of these reforms, or neither.
Kentucky did both, creating its own state-based exchange, Kynect, and expanding Medicaid to those making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty rate. More than 521,000 people obtained health insurance coverage through Kynect in 2014, either through a private plan or Medicaid.
A recent Gallup poll released in July found that almost equal numbers of Americans approve and disapprove of the eeform law. This is a huge shift from last year when 37 percent said they approved of the law and 56 said they disapproved. Differences continue to be defined by political party lines, with 83 percent of Democrats and 14 percent of Republicans saying they approved of the law in this most recent poll. The error margin in this poll is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
"This is happening as uninsured rates for most states have continued to decline," the report notes.
For the 2013 poll in Kentucky, the sample size was 2,755, for an error margin of plus or minus 1.87 percentage points. For the first half of 2015, the sample size was 1,350, for an error margin of plus or minus 2.67 percentage points.
Kentucky did both, creating its own state-based exchange, Kynect, and expanding Medicaid to those making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty rate. More than 521,000 people obtained health insurance coverage through Kynect in 2014, either through a private plan or Medicaid.
"This is happening as uninsured rates for most states have continued to decline," the report notes.
For the 2013 poll in Kentucky, the sample size was 2,755, for an error margin of plus or minus 1.87 percentage points. For the first half of 2015, the sample size was 1,350, for an error margin of plus or minus 2.67 percentage points.
- Kentucky Had The Largest Decrease, From 2013 To 2014, In Percentage Of Residents Without Health Insurance
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Kentucky led the nation in the largest drop in the percentage of residents without health insurance from 2013 to 2014, according to a report released Sept. 16 by the U.S. Census Bureau. The percentage of uninsured...
- Economic Upturn Boosts Share Of Kentuckians On Employer-based Health Coverage; Health Reform Boosts Number On Public Plans
Half of Kentucky's working-age adults now get health insurance through their employers, up from 37 percent two years ago, reversing a downward trend that began with the Great Recession. Meanwhile, under federal health reform, many more Kentuckians...
- Kentuckians With Health Insurance Are More Likely To Have Heard About Kynect Than Those Without Insurance, Poll Finds
The 10 percent of Kentuckians who remain without health insurance are less likely to have heard much about Kynect, the state health-insurance exchange created under the federal health-reform law, than those who have insurance. But overall, the uninsured...
- Poll: Kynect Considered A Success, But Voters Haven't Embraced It, And They Still Disapprove Of The Affordable Care Act
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News A new poll again indicates that Kentuckians marginally approve of the state health-insurance exchange created under the federal health-reform law, but clearly disapprove of the law itself. The poll, taken Aug. 7-10, surveyed...
- 28% Of Ky. Adults 18-64 Say They Lack Health Coverage; 41% Lacked It Sometime In Last Year; Employer Coverage Down Since '08
Nearly three in 10 working-age adults in Kentucky are not covered by any form of health insurance, and the number who get health insurance from their employer, or their spouse?s employer, has plummeted since 2008, the first year of the Great Recession,...