As more of the Affordable Care Act will soon kick in, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at the number of Americans that still don't have any health insurance. The numbers are from the latest Census Bureau report (for 2012, the latest year with full statistics).There are no real surprises in the report. The area of the country with the highest percentage of people without health insurance is the South (18.6%), which incidentally is the region controlled by the GOP (and in which many states have refused to expand Medicaid). The area with the smallest percentage is the Northeast (10.8%).
The top chart shows the demographic breakdown of the groups without insurance. The bottom chart shows the breakdown by income levels -- which also is no surprise, since those making the least in income have the highest percentage of no insurance.
The age groups with the highest percentage of no insurance are the 19 to 25 and the 26 to 34 age groups, both of which have a 27.2% level. And sadly, there are still nearly 1 out of every 10 children (under 19) which have no health insurance (9.2%).
It'll be interesting to look at these kind of numbers again in a couple of years, and see just what kind of effect Obamacare has had on the numbers. Of course, the Republicans are trying hard to make sure those numbers don't go down (with votes in Congress to repeal/defund the program, anti-health care reform propaganda, refusal to expand Medicaid, and efforts to stymie the establishment of state insurance exchanges), and that could have a negative effect on how successful Obamacare is in reducing the percentage of those without health insurance.
