Southwest last in country in health insurance coverage

According to a government study by the Center for Disease Control, the Southwest has the lowest rate of health insurance coverage. Nearly 30 percent of non-elderly adults and 18 percent of children are uninsured.

New England has the largest portion of insured people with less than half (11 percent non-elderly, 4 percent children) the rate of uninsured as the Southwest.

The results were based on a national survey of over 106,000 families from 2004 to 2006.

Although there is not one reason why states like New Mexico, Arizona and Texas have less insured people, the fact that many jobs in the area are service and have worse coverage than other parts of the country is a major factor.

As New England states like Massachusetts continue to make covering the uninsured a priority, that margin may increase, said Ken Thorpe of Emory University.

“There are substantial inequities in coverage depending where you live, and they seem to be getting worse,” said Thorpe.

Among those individual states surveyed, Oklahoma had the highest percentage of uninsured at roughly 33 percent. Massachusetts and Hawaii were tied for the lowest at 9.5 percent.

While the Southwest has a larger American Indian population – who are covered but not counted in the survey Indian Health Service - than much of the rest of the country, the region would have still ranked last, even if that coverage was included, said Robin Cohen, lead researcher.

The Southeast was second-worst (23 percent of adults) while Great Plains, Upper Midwest and Northeast and the Great Lakes all ranged between 14-15 percent for adults and 6-7 for children uninsured.

The CDC estimates that nearly 54 million Americans went uninsured for at least part of the year and 31 million went uninsured for more than a year.

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