Health insurance is considered essential to access high-quality health care and offers protection from excessive medical bills. Throughout the year, the Kansas Health Institute provides detailed information about insurance coverage in Kansas to enrich ongoing discussion of health coverage options in Kansas and on the national level.
This infographic provides a high-level overview of insurance coverage for 2,898,978 Kansans in 2023.
Highlights include:
Almost 1.8 million Kansans were covered by private insurance, including:
- 1.5 million by employment-based coverage
- 62,330 by military or TRICARE insurance
- 188,852 by directly purchased insurance, including 122,871 on the health insurance marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
Another 885,787 were covered by public insurance, including:
- 342,989 by Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
- 73,239 by both Medicare and Medicaid
- 462,109 by Medicare
- 7,450 by Veterans Affairs (VA) health care
And 239,807 Kansans were uninsured, including:
- 196,446 nonelderly adults
- 38,534 children
Medicare beneficiaries regardless of Medicaid enrollment can choose to join Original Medicare (also known as Traditional Medicare) or Medicare Advantage (also known as Part C). According to the Medicare Advantage monthly enrollment data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 182,228 Kansas Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans as of December 2023. Medicare Advantage is a Medicare-approved plan from a private insurance company that offers an alternative to Original Medicare. There are different types of Medicare Advantage Plans, such as health maintenance organization (HMO) plans, HMO point-of-service plans, preferred provider organization (local and regional) plans, private fee-for-service plans, special needs plans and medical savings account plans.
Policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic continued to affect coverage in 2023. During the COVID-19 pandemic, federal and state policies expanded access to health insurance, allowing Medicaid and CHIP enrollees to maintain their coverage without the need for redetermination throughout the public health emergency. This continuous enrollment ended on March 31, 2023. As part of the unwinding process, states were required to restart and complete the redetermination process. Kansas began its review period in April 2023 and completed the unwinding process by May 31, 2024. Because some Kansans who lost coverage in the unwinding process were still enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP at the time 2023 coverage data were collected, the full effect of the unwinding will not be seen until 2024 data become available.
Similarly, policies to expand eligibility for subsidies to purchase a plan on the health insurance marketplace had an effect on coverage in 2023. Households continued to be eligible for subsidies that were expanded to higher-income households in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 as part of the pandemic response and extended by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022. Households with income above 400 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) previously were ineligible for subsidies, but may be eligible for a marketplace subsidy through 2025, depending on premium cost and household income.
Two-thirds (166,337 or 69.4 percent) of uninsured Kansans in 2023 had household income that may have qualified them for subsidies to purchase health insurance on the Kansas marketplace. Among those who would have qualified, 134,561 (80.9 percent) would have qualified for subsidies to reduce monthly premiums under the original terms of the ACA and 31,776 (19.1 percent) may have newly qualified for subsidies under IRA.
As of December 2024, Kansas is one of 10 states that have not implemented expanded Medicaid coverage to adults with household income up to 138 percent FPL, as allowed by the ACA. In 2023, Medicaid expansion would have covered individual adults with annual household income up to $20,120 and adults in a four-person family with annual household income up to $41,400. If the state had expanded its program in 2023, 58,448 uninsured Kansas adults would have become newly eligible for Medicaid coverage.
Another 28,472 uninsured Kansas adults and children were likely already eligible for Medicaid or CHIP, but were not enrolled.