Annual Insurance Update 2015

Key Points

• • In 2013, an estimated 349,809 (12.3 percent) Kansans did not have health insurance coverage, which is not a significant change from 2012. However, the rate is significantly lower than the national rate (14.5 percent).
  • More than half (51.6 percent) of all Kansans are covered through employment-based health insurance, and 29.5 percent of Kansans are covered through public health insurance programs like Medicare or Medicaid.
  • Most uninsured Kansas adults (77.7 percent) are working.
  • The percent of young adults age 19–25 without health insurance in Kansas continues to decline (28.2 percent in 2010 compared to 21.5 percent in 2013); this follows the national trend in insurance coverage for this age group that can now obtain coverage through their parents’ plans until age 26.
  • Hispanic Kansans are more than two and a half times more likely to be uninsured than White, non-Hispanic Kansans (26.8 percent compared to 9.6 percent).

The Kansas Health Institute (KHI) has released the Annual Insurance Update 2015, describing the many factors influencing health insurance coverage rates and trends in Kansas.

KHI’s yearly publication provides an in-depth look at insurance coverage in Kansas—primarily based on the latest American Community Survey (ACS) data gathered by the U.S. Census Bureau. This report examines 2013 data, providing a picture of insurance coverage in Kansas in the final year before the major insurance expansion provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) took effect.

Access this publication in the Documents & Downloads section.