New census figures show that more Louisianans than ever before are now covered by health insurance.
Director of the Louisiana Budget Project Jan Moller says this is great news because for the longest time, Louisiana had one of the highest uninsured rates in the country.
“In Louisiana, in 2015, the rate dropped to just under 12%, almost three percentage points. It was at 14.8% and it dropped to almost 12%.”
And Moller says this number doesn’t even include all the people who received coverage this summer through the expansion of Medicaid. He says nearly 212-thousand people in Louisiana signed up for coverage through the federal health insurance exchange program.
“This is not only good for the people who have gotten coverage, it’s also good for the economy as a whole because when people have coverage they are much more likely to get preventive care.”
The new census data also found the overall median income rose 5% in 2015, but in the south, it only climbed 3%. Moller says we can’t be sure exactly why the southern part of the country is behind but the south in general has lower levels of educational attainment. He says even though it’s not as much, 3% is still an improvement.
“The economy has been growing for several years. We’ve had many consecutive quarters of economic growth but we’ve been waiting for a long time for that growth to filter down to the middle class families.”
Date: September 14, 2016