The Census Bureau couldn’t have timed the release of its first American Community Survey data on health insurance coverage in America any better. Special interests and politicians alike have seized upon the data, and a wide variety of outlets have published analyses. NPR’s map breaking down coverage by state and political district is particularly interesting (To see other ACS results as well, try USA Today‘s map).
In case you somehow missed the coverage, here are a few highlights from the data:
- Fewest insured, overall: Texas (24.11 percent), New Mexico (21.44 percent), Nevada(21.33 percent), Florida (20.83 percent), Alaska (20.05 percent)
- Most covered, overall: Massachusetts (95.88 percent), Hawaii (93.28 percent), District of Columbia (91.95 percent), Puerto Rico (91.39 percent), Minnesota (91.33 percent)
- Under-18: Nevada, Texas and Arizona insure the fewest children, Massachusetts, Vermont and D.C. insure the most.
- Medicare: New Mexico, Texas, D.C., Arizona and California had the most uninsured folks over the age of 65. They also have some of the nation’s highest percentages of illegal immigrants.
If you’re still looking for local data, visit this page of the Census Bureau’s American FactFinder, sort by state, county, district or other census designation, and pull up the relevant data. When the data comes up, choose “Print/Download” from the top menu, choose “Download” and choose to save it in Excel format. From there, the data’s fairly easy to clean and use, though the more detailed levels (such as county) may require a little tweaking.
