Uninsured America

Where in the US do most people have no health insurance?

There’s nothing more important than our health. When we’re unwell our quality of life drastically decreases, we struggle to enjoy life and find it more difficult to work and earn a living. However, there’s still a large number of Americans who have no health insurance, and many people avoid seeing the doctor because they don’t have the money to spare for expensive medical bills.

Due to the high cost of medication and medical appointments, many people are putting themselves at risk by not seeking proper medical advice, and it’s fairly commonplace for Americans to drive hundreds of miles to Canada to find their medication at an affordable price. Thankfully, you can now buy most medications online at increasingly affordable prices, preventing you from overpaying on anything from insulin to lisdexamfetamine.

But, with so many Americans with no health cover, this is clearly still a serious nationwide issue. We wanted to find out where in the country the most people are uninsured. We’ve looked at data for every state and state capital to find the places that have the most and least health cover, as well as where the most people avoid visiting the doctors due to financial difficulties.

Where do the most people avoid seeing their doctor due to cost?

Here we can see the proportion of adults in each state that have avoided seeing the doctor for twelve months or more due to the cost of appointments.

1. Mississippi – 19.2%

Mississippi is the state with the highest proportion of its adult population that has not seen a doctor for a year due to financial concerns, with as many as 19.2% of people falling into this category. That’s almost a fifth of the entire state’s adult population!

2. Texas – 17.9%

The second-largest state with the second-largest population, Texas also has the second-highest number of people not visiting the doctor due to cost, with 17.9% of the adult population. With a state population of almost 29 million, that’s a lot of Texans!

3. Louisiana – 17.6%

After Texas comes neighboring Louisiana, where 17.6% of adults have avoided visiting the doctor for a year or more.

This highlights the difficult choices that many people have to make about balancing their health and their finances, not just in these top few states, but across the entire country.

The states with the least health insurance cover

We’ve taken a look at rates of health insurance coverage across all 50 states, and these are the ten with the largest proportion of uninsured residents.

1. Texas – 17.3%

Texas takes the top spot for the state with the largest proportion of its population having no health insurance. Whether Texans forgo health cover for monetary reasons or are simply less concerned about being covered, that’s an incredibly large number of people at risk of falling ill without any idea of how they’ll be treated.

2. Oklahoma – 14.2%

In second place, with 14.2% of its population having no health insurance, is Oklahoma. Having also come tenth in terms of the number of people avoiding the doctors due to cost, Oklahoma’s residents could certainly benefit from more widespread and affordable healthcare.

3. Alaska – 13.7%

Alaska comes third with a sizeable 13.7% of residents not having any health cover. This vast northern state is known for its hardy inhabitants, but they need access to healthcare just like anyone else, and there’s clear room for improvement here.

The state capitals with the least health insurance

Here we take a closer look at the proportion of the population in each of the state capitals that has no health cover.

1. Trenton, NJ – 18.20%

Trenton comes out as the state capital where residents have the least health cover, with 18.2% being uninsured. This is a stark contrast to state-level cover, where only 7.73% of people have no health insurance. This demonstrates that even in a state where the vast majority have health cover, there are disadvantaged communities struggling to address their health needs.

2. Nashville, TN – 15.20%

The state capital with the second-highest proportion of uninsured residents is Nashville, where 15.2% of the population has no health cover. Again, Tennessee did not appear in the ten states with the least healthcare coverage, which illustrates how much health insurance rates can vary across within a single state.

3. Santa Fe, NM – 14.80%

In third place is the state capital of New Mexico, Santa Fe, where 14.8% of residents have no health insurance. This is 2% higher than the state level, where 12.8% of people are uninsured.

The states with the most health cover

These are the states where the most people are covered by health insurance:

1. Massachusetts – 97.20%

Massachusetts comes top of the list with only 2.8% of the population having no health cover.

2. Hawaii – 96.15%

In second place is Hawaii, where only 3.85% of people are with any health insurance.

3. Minnesota – 95.61%

Taking third place is Minnesota, with as few as 4.39% of its 5.61m population being uninsured.

The state capitals where the most people have health insurance

Here you can see the state capitals with the most insured populations:

1. Montpelier, VT – 97.60%

The state capital with the highest proportion of residents having health insurance is Montpelier, VT, where only 2.4% of people have no health cover. Vermont was also the 4th most insured state with 95.45% of the population being covered by some form of health insurance.

2. Honolulu, HI – 96.51%

Honolulu is the state with the second-lowest rate of uninsured people, with only 3.49% of the population having no health insurance.

3. Boston, MA – 96.38%

With only 3.62% of the population being uninsured, Boston is the state capital with the third-highest level of health insurance cover.

See below for our full data on the rate of health insurance in all 50 states and state capitals, as well as the full data set for where the most people avoid seeing the doctor due to the cost.

Methodology

We wanted to find out which states had the highest and lowest levels of health insurance cover. To find this out, we used data from datausa.io which gave us the percentage of the population of each state that was uninsured. This allowed us to rank the states according to this factor.

We then examined the data to find out which state capitals had the highest and lowest rates of insurance, and were, therefore, able to draw comparisons between the state-wide level of insurance cover and that of the capital. We also used the data to find out which state had the highest proportion of adults that don’t go to the doctors due to cost.

By finding these three factors, we were able to create a picture of the state of health insurance across the country.

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