Infographic: Health Insurance in Kansas 2019

3 Min Read

Oct 30, 2020

By

Wen-Chieh Lin, Ph.D.,

Emily Burgen, M.P.H.

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Health insurance is considered essential to access high-quality health care and offers protection from excessive medical bills. Throughout the year, the Kansas Health Institute (KHI) provides detailed information about insurance coverage in Kansas to enrich ongoing discussion of health coverage options in Kansas and on the national level. This infographic provides the first glimpse of recently released detailed data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Over the coming months, follow us on TwitterFacebook or LinkedIn, and check out www.khi.org frequently to get more information as it becomes available.

This infographic provides a high-level overview of insurance coverage for 2,872,404 Kansans in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights include:

Nearly 1.8 million Kansans were covered by private insurance, including:

    • 1.5 million by employment-based coverage
    • 62,054 by military or TRICARE insurance
    • 163,726 by directly purchased insurance, including 81,144 on the Kansas marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Another 847,944 were covered by public insurance, including:

    • 441,033 by Medicare
    • 327,599 by Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
    • 71,158 by both Medicare and Medicaid, and
    • 8,154 by Veterans Affairs health care.

And 262,250 Kansans were uninsured, including:

    • 217,404 nonelderly adults, and
    • 42,888 children.

Kansas is one of 17 states that as of January 10, 2019, had not expanded Medicaid coverage to adults with household income up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL), as allowed by the ACA. (As of October 2020, 14 states have not implemented Medicaid expansion.) In 2019, Medicaid expansion would have covered individual adults with annual household income up to $17,236, and adults in a four-person family up to an annual household income of $35,535.

    • If the state had expanded its program in 2019, 75,353 low-income, uninsured Kansas adults would have become newly eligible for Medicaid coverage.
    • Another 33,598 low-income uninsured Kansas adults and children were likely already eligible for Medicaid or CHIP, but not enrolled.
    • More than half (137,291 or 52.4 percent) of uninsured Kansans in 2019 had household income that would have qualified them for subsidies to purchase health insurance on the Kansas marketplace.

NOTE on data:
This infographic uses the latest-available data, which come from the 2019 American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Early 2019 Effectuated Enrollment Snapshot Fact Sheet from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The Kansas population presented is the non-institutionalized population in Kansas. Estimates of the number of Kansans eligible for Medicaid or qualifying for marketplace plans and subsidies are based on the Census Bureau definition of household units, which consist of all individuals currently residing in the sampled household, regardless of how members of the household are related. Actual experience may differ, as eligibility determinations for Medicaid and the health insurance marketplace include other considerations.

This Infographic is part of our Annual Insurance Update series.

About Kansas Health Institute

The Kansas Health Institute supports effective policymaking through nonpartisan research, education and engagement. KHI believes evidence-based information, objective analysis and civil dialogue enable policy leaders to be champions for a healthier Kansas. Established in 1995 with a multiyear grant from the Kansas Health Foundation, KHI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization based in Topeka.

Learn More About KHI