It’s that time of the year again where those of us at WCCF who love numbers get pretty excited. Today the Census Bureau began the release of its 2013 American Community Survey (ACS) health insurance coverage data. The figures released today show insurance status for the nation and by state. On Thursday more figures will be released that dive down into the numbers by county.

The data released today show that:

• 518,000 or 9.1% of Wisconsinites were uninsured in 2013. While this is a slight increase from the 2012 figure, the change isn’t statistically significant.
• 61,000 Wisconsin children, or 4.7%, were uninsured in 2013. While the percentage of uninsured children didn’t change from 2012, Wisconsin’s ranking for uninsured children has been slipping. Twelve states are ahead of Wisconsin in terms of a higher percentage of children with insurance coverage, including our neighbors Illinois, Iowa and Michigan.
• About 41,000 of Wisconsin’s uninsured children are in low-income families (below 200% of the federal poverty level — which is  $47,700 in annual income for a family of four).
• In 2013, the Census Bureau’s figures show that approximately 3.2 million  Wisconsinites under age 65 (65.7% of the stat’s non-elderly population) had insurance through an employer. Employer coverage has been declining over many years, and since 2009 Wisconsin has seen a drop in employer-sponsored insurance coverage of around 130,000 individuals under the age of 65.

According to Jon Peacock, WCCF’s Research Director, “Even though employer-sponsored insurance has declined substantially in recent years, BadgerCare has kept Wisconsin’s uninsured rate among the lowest in the country.”   The 2013 Census Bureau figures show:

• Wisconsin has the sixth lowest percentage of people lacking health insurance (tied with Delaware)
• Wisconsin has the third lowest percentage of people lacking health insurance in the upper Midwest (behind Minnesota and Iowa).

However, this isn’t the time to rest on our laurels. Wisconsin’s high ranking is at risk as some of the 27 states who have accepted federal funding to expand their Medicaid programs may soon outrank us. While the 2013 Census data doesn’t reflect the significant changes to health coverage resulting from the Affordable Care Act, or the changes made to the BadgerCare program, there is some preliminary 2014 data currently available.

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) released data today from its National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), reflecting health insurance trends from the first quarter of 2014. This preliminary data indicates that there has been a very substantial improvement in insurance coverage this year, particularly among states that chose to expand their Medicaid programs.  The uninsurance rate in those states declined nearly three times as fast as in the states that have refused to expand their Medicaid programs.

Stay tuned for more updates as additional data comes in on Thursday.

Sashi Gregory