Kentucky Health Insurance

State Rankings

Kentucky is tied with West Virginia for the dubious honor of having the highest percentage of adult smokers in the United States at 25.6%, according to U.S. News. This represents a smoking rate nearly three times larger than the lowest rate, Utah at only 9.8%. It is also in the top seven for both adult and child obesity rates, hypertension rate, diabetes rate, and physical inactivity rate in addition to being first in the nation in preventable hospitalizations and cancer deaths, according to United Health.

The prevalence of preventative health conditions and hospitalizations has not been a positive influence on the state of Kentucky healthcare. Over the past five years, the percentage of uninsured Kentuckians has increased from 13% to 15.4% of the population. This is an unwelcome trend, especially as the percentage of children in poverty has increased by 60% in the past decade. A high rate of uninsured residents and an even higher rate of childhood poverty is not conducive to creating a healthy state and lowering healthcare costs in Kentucky.

Kentucky Healthcare

So is there anything good about Kentucky healthcare? Actually, yes. The smoking rate for adults has actually decreased over the past decade, as has the diabetes rate. Although both remain very high, a long term decreasing trend is a good sign for future health prospects in Kentucky. Kentucky was also praised in the recent UnitedHealthcare report for its low rates of binge drinking and violent crime, two facts that will surely come as a sign of promising trends in Kentucky healthcare and health insurance. Kentucky has several health insurance programs that received high scores in the 2011 NCQA survey: