More rural Americans are without health insurance than their urban counterparts, and the rate of uninsured in rural areas is growing rapidly, Tim Marema and Bill Bishop report for the Daily Yonder. In 2011, 18.7 of people under 65 outside metropolitan areas lacked health insurance, while 17.2 percent of metro residents those ages lacked it. (It should be noted that many rural Americans live in metro areas because more than 25 percent of their county's workforce commutes to a metro core county.)
From 2007 to 2011, the number of uninsured people in the U.S. rose by 873,000. "Non-metro counties accounted for 442,000, or just over half of the growth in uninsured residents. That’s more than three times the number of uninsured we would expect to see if the increase was occurring evenly across metro and non-metro areas," the writers note. In non-metropolitan areas, the share of the under-65 population rose 1.2 percentage points from 2007 to 2011. "The percentage increase in metropolitan counties over the same period was a barely perceptible 0.05 percentage points."
One reason for the difference in non-metro areas could be unemployment, the Yonder ventures. "Most U.S. workers get insurance through their employer, according to a U.S. Census study. Since 2007 the number of jobs in non-metro counties has dropped by 646,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics." (Read more) (Yonder map: In darker counties, a higher percentage of the population does not have health insurance. Metropolitan counties are in blue. To view an interactive map, with data for each county, click here; the figures for small counties are estimates, with margins of error.)
From 2007 to 2011, the number of uninsured people in the U.S. rose by 873,000. "Non-metro counties accounted for 442,000, or just over half of the growth in uninsured residents. That’s more than three times the number of uninsured we would expect to see if the increase was occurring evenly across metro and non-metro areas," the writers note. In non-metropolitan areas, the share of the under-65 population rose 1.2 percentage points from 2007 to 2011. "The percentage increase in metropolitan counties over the same period was a barely perceptible 0.05 percentage points."
One reason for the difference in non-metro areas could be unemployment, the Yonder ventures. "Most U.S. workers get insurance through their employer, according to a U.S. Census study. Since 2007 the number of jobs in non-metro counties has dropped by 646,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics." (Read more) (Yonder map: In darker counties, a higher percentage of the population does not have health insurance. Metropolitan counties are in blue. To view an interactive map, with data for each county, click here; the figures for small counties are estimates, with margins of error.)
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