Poll: 37 percent of working Kentuckians do not receive work-based health insurance coverage

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Feb. 12, 2013) — Nearly three in 10 (28 percent) Kentucky working-age adults do not have health insurance, and the number of adults ages 18-64 who get health insurance from their employer, or their spouse’s employer, has plummeted.  Those are among the findings in the latest Kentucky Health Issues Poll (KHIP).

Because 98 percent of seniors have some form of health coverage, this report focuses only on working age adults (ages 18-64).  KHIP highlights include:

♦ Four in 10 (41 percent) indicated they had been uninsured at some point in the last 12 months.

♦ Fewer than four in 10 (37 percent) get their health insurance from an employer or spouse’s employer. In 2008, more than five in 10 (55 percent) got their insurance from an employer or spouse’s employer.

♦ Nearly three in 10 (27 percent) are covered by some form of public insurance. That’s almost triple the percentage (10 percent) who were covered by public insurance in 2008.

♦ About four in 10 (43 percent) of adults living at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty level reported being uninsured.

♦ Fewer than two in 10 (15 percent) of adults living above 200 percent of the federal poverty level said they were uninsured.

“This data gives us a snapshot of the health insurance situation for Kentucky adults,” said Dr. Susan Zepeda, President/CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. “It appears that fewer workers are obtaining health insurance through their employers, while a growing number of working-age adults are being covered by public insurance.”

The KHIP was funded by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky and the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati.  The poll was conducted Sept. 20 through Oct. 14 by the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati. A random sample of 1,680 adults from throughout Kentucky was interviewed by telephone, including landlines and cell phones.  The poll has a margin of error of ±2.5 percent.

The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky is a non-profit, philanthropic organization working to address the unmet health care needs of Kentuckians.