WV'S UNINSURED HEALTH COVERAGE RATE STEEPLY DROPPING

(09/19/2015)
The U.S. Census Bureau says West Virginia has experienced one of the biggest drops in the country when it comes to those without health insurance.

The report says the number of uninsured West Virginians dropped from 14% in 2013 to 8.6% in 2014, with approximately 99,000 of 255,000 uninsured residents gaining either private or government coverage during that time period.

Renate Pore, the director of health policy for West Virginians for Affordable Health Care, said that nearly 200,000 West Virginians have become insured since the Affordable Care Act went into effect in 2014.

In the US, the uninsured rate decreased by 2.9 percentage points between 2013 and 2014 to 10.4%.