Ohio's uninsured population has dropped since mid-2000s
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The number of Ohioans under 65 without health insurance has dropped significantly over the past 15 years, according to new Census Bureau data.
Why it matters: Coverage expansions under the Affordable Care Act and social safety net policies enacted during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic are helping more people get insured across the country, per KFF.
The big picture: 17.8% of U.S. residents were uninsured in 2006, four years before the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
- That dropped to 9.5% in 2022.
Yes, but: Ohio's uninsured rates were consistently below the national figures during that time period.
- The state recorded 12.3% of residents, or just over 1.2 million people, as uninsured in 2006, compared to 7.1% (668,000) in 2022.
Zoom in: County rates vary across the state, with rural areas tending to have higher rates of uninsured residents.
- In Franklin County, 8.2% of residents (around 92,000 people) were without insurance in 2022.
- Delaware County, frequently identified as one of the healthiest counties in America, had the lowest uninsured rate in Ohio at just 4%.
The intrigue: Holmes County in the heart of Amish country is a major outlier, with more than one-third of residents lacking insurance in 2022.
Threat level: More recent preliminary national data shows an uptick in the overall uninsured rate as states cut Medicaid rolls and unemployment rises, Axios' Maya Goldman reports.
