Florida ranks No. 3 in percentage of uninsured people : DENNIS JOYCE
By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-08-11 11:21:49 | Word Count: 508
Florida, where tempers flared at a town hall meeting on health care reform Thursday, has more at stake than most states in the debate over covering the uninsured.
New data from the Census Bureau shows that among Floridians younger than 65, which is the age where Medicare kicks in, one in four lacks health insurance.
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That puts Florida No. 3 on the list of states with the highest percentage of the uninsured. The total here: 3.7 million people, or 24.9 percent.
Nationally, 17.8 percent are uninsured, according to the new data, called the Small Area Health Insurance Estimates, compiled from more than a half-dozen census reports from 2006.
Studies from public and private sources vary widely on the number of America's uninsured, with one report last month singling out Texas and New Mexico as the states in the top tier of the uninsured and another pegging the Southwest as the region with the worst problem.
But the new data provides the only county-level information available, the Census Bureau says – at least until the agency releases comprehensive health coverage data for the first time next month from its annual American Community Survey.
The states with the highest percentage of uninsured people, the study says: Texas with 27.6 percent, followed by New Mexico, Florida, Louisiana and Arizona. The states with the lowest percentage of uninsured, between 9 percent and 10 percent, are Wisconsin, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Minnesota.
The number of uninsured people, and how many of them are illegal immigrants, is driving the discussion in Congress over expanding health care. The Tampa town hall meeting drew national attention when shouting and scuffles forced its cancellation. It was one several scheduled nationwide during Congress' August break.
Within Florida, the counties at the extremes of insurance coverage are sparsely populated: DeSoto just east of Sarasota with more than 38 percent uninsured and Baker on the Georgia border with just 15 percent uninsured.
But Florida's three most populous counties have among the highest percentages of uninsured: Miami-Dade with 31 percent, and Broward and Palm Beach with 27 percent each.
In Hillsborough, the state's fourth most populous county, 21 percent are uninsured – a total of 220,000 people. In the Tampa Bay area, Sarasota has the highest percentage of uninsured people at 27 percent.
Rounding out Bay area counties are Manatee at 26 percent, Polk at 23 percent, Hernando at 21 percent and Pinellas at 19 percent.
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