Who Lacks Health Insurance in Your County?

August 4th, 2012

Across Mississippi, adults without health insurance are more vulnerable to financial crisis due to medical emergencies, less likely to seek preventive medical care and more likely to lose days of work to untreated illness.

This week the Center for Mississippi Health Policy released a series of fact sheets and maps that document the magnitude of uninsured non-elderly adult residents in each county. The fact sheets illustrate the importance of developing a well-functioning Health Insurance Exchange and expanding Medicaid coverage to increase health insurance access for the half million Mississippians that lack health insurance.

The map below shows that in the majority of Mississippi counties more than 30% of adults earning up to four times the federal poverty level lack health insurance. To lower the number of uninsured adults across Mississippi communities, the Affordable Care Act provides premium tax credits for Mississippians earning between one and four times the poverty level (100% to 400% of the poverty level) to assist with the purchase of health insurance through an exchange.

Adults across the income spectrum and in every county in the state, struggle with a lack of access to health insurance in Mississippi.

The county-level information shows that seven counties have over 10,000 adults below the 400 percent threshold that also lack health insurance.

Counties with more than 10,000 adults potentially eligible span the state and include:

DeSoto County
Forrest County
Harrison County
Hinds County
Jackson County
Lee County
Rankin County

To see the number of adults that lacks health insurance in your county click here.

Beyond tax credits to middle-income families, the ACA’s Medicaid expansion also gives states the option to extend Medicaid coverage to adults with income below 138 percent of the poverty level.

The recently released fact sheet detail the number of uninsured adults earning less than 138 percent of the Federal Poverty Level($15,415 for 1 adult or $31,809 for a family of 4) and that could gain coverage through Medicaid expansion.

Author: Sarah Welker, Policy Analyst
Source: Center for Mississippi Health Policy