To determine how many people have health insurance they start with 100 and subtract the percentage of the population who are not covered by private or public health insurance. Data Sources: America's Health Rankings analysis of U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, United Health Foundation, AmericasHealthRankings.org, accessed 2022. (Measure is the inverse of the “uninsured” value. See https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/measures/HealthInsurance/UT)

Health insurance is important to help people get the preventive and medical care they need for good health. The nation’s uninsurance rate dropped a lot after the Affordable Care Act went into effect, yet nearly 29.6 million people were still uninsured in 2019. In 2019, an analysis found that 73.7% of uninsured adults reported the reason they were uninsured is because they couldn't afford health insurance. Compared with insured adults, uninsured adults have more health disadvantages, including:

• worse health outcomes and higher rates of early death

• higher rates of death from cancer and greater risk of a late-stage cancer diagnosis

• not enough access to quality care, including preventive services

• expensive medical bills because of undiagnosed or untreated chronic conditions and more emergency room visits

One study estimated that adults ages 20 to 64 in 3 states where Medicaid was expanded experienced a 6% decline in death from all causes compared with adults who live in demographically and economically similar states that did not expand Medicaid. This decline was largely from medical conditions that respond well to medical management, such as HIV, heart disease, and diabetes.