Over the last decade, the number of uninsured Kentuckians has increased by 3.1 percentage points, which mirrors trends in other states. According to the new Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS), roughly 1 in 6, or 17.5 percent of people in Kentucky had no health coverage in 2009 and 2010. Across the country, 18.3 percent of the population lacked health coverage in 2009-2010.

In contrast, government investment in health care through programs like Medicaid and Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program has increased. For instance, the percent of children covered by Medicaid in Kentucky rose 6 percentage points, since 2007-2008, to forty percent, keeping the number of uninsured children low.

Along with health insurance data, the survey also includes some income and poverty data. It shows that the U.S. poverty rate increased from 12.4 percent to 14.7 percent between 2006-2007 and 2009-2010. Kentucky’s poverty rate of 17.4 percent did not change significantly since 2006-2007. Because the sample size for state-level poverty and income data is not large enough to provide reliable state sampling, the Census Bureau generally favors the American Community Survey (ACS) data for analysis of state poverty and income, which will be released on September 22.

For more health insurance data, visit http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/hlthins/hlthins.html

For more poverty data, visit http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/incpovhlth/2010/index.html