Significant changes are coming to the state health insurance system that will impact hundreds of thousands of children and families staring October 1. There are currently 640,000 uninsured Kentuckians, or 17.5 percent of the state’s population under age 65. About 332,000 of these uninsured individuals can gain coverage through the Health Benefit Exchange. With expansion of Medicaid, the other 308,000 uninsured Kentuckians can gain health insurance coverage through Medicaid. This group includes families of four with an estimated annual income of no more than $32,500 (more information available from an analysis completed by the Cabinet for Health Family Serivces here).

Many people throughout the state are working hard to ensure they are ready for the imminent changes. For more information about what the state is doing, check out Kentucky’s Health Benefit Exchange, Kynect at http://kynect.ky.gov/.