Census: 1 in 6 Utahns in '06 lacked health plan

As Congress debates health-care reform, the U.S. Census Bureau released estimates Monday that one of every six Utahns under age 65 had no health insurance in 2006.

And that was before the recession began.

Compiling such data from numerous studies and sources takes time and is routinely delayed a few years. Some more up-to-date estimates from newer annual census surveys, which just added questions about whether people are insured, are expected later this year.

Utah does a bit better than the nation as a whole.

The percentage of Utahns under age 65 (when Medicare is available) without insurance was 16.7 percent in 2006. The national average was 17.8 percent.

Still, Utah ranked a low No. 31 out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. And the census estimated that about 400,600 Utahns under age 65 lacked health insurance that year.

The poor and minorities in Utah have a higher rate of being uninsured. About a third of those who are at or below 200 percent of the poverty level are uninsured — 29.9 percent, to be exact.

The census estimated that 37.5 percent of Hispanics had no health insurance, nor did 22.1 percent of blacks. Meanwhile, only 13.2 percent of whites were uninsured.

The Census Bureau also released county-by-county estimates of how many residents were uninsured. (A complete county-by-county chart is available online at deseretnews.com.)

Among Utah counties, Piute County had the highest rate of uninsured, 26.9 percent. It was followed closely by such small, rural counties as at Rich, 25.5 percent; Daggett, 24.1; Beaver, 23.6; Wayne, 22.6; and Millard, 21.6 percent.

Suburban Davis County had the lowest percentage of uninsured in the state: 11.9 percent. Others with relatively low percentages for the uninsured were Carbon, 12.1 percent; Juab, 13.5 percent; Tooele and Box Elder, 14 percent; and Sevier, 15 percent.

The percentages for some other large counties were Salt Lake, 16.6 percent; Utah, 18 percent; and Weber, 15.2 percent.

The census makes the estimates through models that combine data from such sources as its Current Population Survey, Census 2000, the Population Estimates Program, the County Business Patterns data set, aggregated federal tax returns and Medicaid participation records.