Feature

Uninsured rate lowest in Massachusetts

Publish date: October 20, 2016
By
Richard Franki

 

Massachusetts had the nation’s lowest uninsured rate in 2015, and Texas had the highest, according to the personal finance website WalletHub.

Massachusetts’ uninsured rate of 2.8% was followed by Vermont at 3.8%, Hawaii at 4%, Minnesota at 4.5%, and Iowa at 5%, WalletHub reported.

States ranked according to uninsured status, 2015
The other end of the scale offered more proof that everything is bigger in Texas: The state’s 17.1% of population without insurance was the country’s highest. Alaska was 49th with a rate of 14.9%, which was preceded by Oklahoma at 13.9%, Georgia at 13.6%, and Florida at 13.3%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau data used in the analysis.

Nevada, which was 44th overall in 2015, had the largest reduction (–10.3%) in its uninsured rate from 2010 to 2015. Oregon had the next-largest drop (10.1%) and Massachusetts had the smallest decrease at –1.6%, meaning that no state saw an increase over the 5-year period, the WalletHub report showed.

A quick run through some subgroups shows that Vermont had the lowest percentage of uninsured children (1%) and Alaska had the highest (10.6%), Massachusetts was lowest for whites (2.2%) and Hispanics (5.3%) while Mississippi was highest (10.9% white and 37.6% Hispanic). Hawaii had the lowest rate (3.8%) for blacks, and Montana had the highest (17.4%), WalletHub said.

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