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Texas has highest percentage of uninsured workers

Patient Financial Services Weekly Advisor, May 7, 2004

Texas leads the nation in the number of working people who have no health insurance, but most states have workers who lack coverage, according to a new study conducted for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

According to a May 5 story in The New York Times, the study also found that being uninsured has health consequences. Uninsured people were less likely to receive basic preventive care such as mammograms; less likely to have a personal physician; and more likely to say their personal health was poor or fair.

Analysts said the study indicated that the healthcare industry still assumes most people will be covered through their employers, but that is not the case. The shift, as reported in the Times, is due to workers moving from manufacturing to lower-paid, service-sector jobs, and from bigger employers to smaller businesses.

Many small businesses can't afford to offer health insurance to their employees. The estimated annual cost is about $9,000 for each employee, according to Kate Sullivan, director of healthcare policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The study found that Texas-where 27% of working adults are uninsured-had the highest rate among the six states where at least one in five workers lacked coverage. The others were Louisiana, 23%; Mississippi and New Mexico, 22% each; and Oklahoma and Nevada, 21% each.

States with the lowest uninsured rates among workers were Minnesota and Hawaii (7% each), Maryland (8%), and Iowa (9%).

Officials in Texas said the higher rates for their state reflected the fact that their labor force is more likely to work for small businesses, and less likely to be unionized.

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