Study found - Southwest US has the highest rate of uninsured
26 06 08 - 11:36
USA Today reports - Southwest lags in health insurance coverage, CDC says
By Mike Stobbe, AP Medical Writer
ATLANTA — The Southwest has the lowest rate of health insurance coverage in the country, with 30% of non-elderly adults and 18% of children uninsured, according to a government study out Wednesday.
New England — with a rate of uninsured people less than half that of the Southwest — has the largest proportion of its population covered, the study found.
In the six state New England region, 11% of non-elderly adults were uninsured, as were a little under 4% of children.
The study marks the first time the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has compared different regions of the country by health insurance status, said Robin Cohen, the lead researcher.
The Southwest has a large Native American population served by the Indian Health Service. The Indian Health Service was not counted as a form of insurance, in keeping with definitions used in other health insurance studies. But even if it had been counted as coverage, the Southwest still would have had the highest uninsurance rates, Cohen said.
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