We all know that health insurance is a moving target. According to the most recent ACS survey data, the national uninsurance rate declined from 13.0% to 11.7% in 2016. Public insurance coverages increased slightly more than private coverages (increases of .9% and .6%) respectively. This change was short-lived as Gallup recently disclosed a significant rise in the uninsurance rate in 2017, a trend that is likely to continue.
What is intriguing about the whole health insurance advance and retreat is the regional differences in health insurance coverage. Counties in the south are much less likely to be insured than counties in the north and, if they have health insurance coverage, tend to use the public health coverages. Using the Population Analysis Interactive, we found geographic concentrations where private health insurance has declined more than 3% in Texas and Georgia. We highlight these and other discoveries in the video blog.
