Key points
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- In 2016, there were 239,578 Kansans who were uninsured, including 36,752 children age 0-18. This translates to an uninsured rate of 8.4 percent, ranking Kansas below 30 other states, and similar to the U.S. average of 8.5 percent.
- The uninsured rate in both Kansas and the U.S. dropped by about one-third between 2009 and 2016.
- People living in states that expanded Medicaid had an uninsured rate almost half that of people living in non-expansion states (6.5 percent compared to 11.6 percent).
- Racial and ethnic minorities in Kansas were much more likely to lack insurance than non-Hispanic Whites. For instance, Kansans who are Hispanic, Any Race, were three times more likely, and non-Hispanic Blacks were two-and-a-half times more likely,
to be uninsured than non-Hispanic Whites (19.8 percent, 16.1 percent, and 6.0 percent, respectively). - Four out of ten (43.1 percent) uninsured adult Kansans had family income at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL), and may qualify for Medicaid if expanded.
- Two-thirds (67.8 percent) of uninsured children in Kansas were in families with income below 243 percent FPL, and may have already been eligible for Medicaid or CHIP.
- Three-fourths (75.3 percent) of uninsured adult Kansans were working. Those working part-time were more than twice as likely to be uninsured as those working full-time, year-round (18.1 percent compared to 7.4 percent).