Also, insurance coverage varied widely among Utah's counties. Davis County had the lowest uninsured rate — just 10.5 percent of its population under age 65 lacked coverage — while Rich County's rate was nearly three times higher, at 26.2 percent.
The new data are for 2007 and come from the Census Bureau's Small Area Health Insurance Estimates program. The information is currently the only estimate for health insurance coverage for every state in the nation and is used to help determine funding for government cancer-screening programs.
The bureau estimates that 15.7 percent of all Utahns under age 65 lacked health insurance. (Those over age 65 are eligible for Medicare coverage.) That was lower than the national rate of 17.1 percent uninsured. Utah ranked a middling 28th best among the states and had an estimated 388,199 residents who lacked health insurance that year. The bureau also estimated that 34.1 percent of Utah Hispanics lacked health insurance, compared to 19.7 percent of Utah blacks and just 12.5 percent of Utah whites.
The numbers showed that rural counties in Utah had an uninsured rate of 17.5 percent, compared to 15.2 percent in urban counties. The counties with the highest uninsured rates were all rural: Rich, at 26.2 percent; Daggett, with 23.5 percent; Beaver, at 22.6; Wayne, with 20.6; Grand, at 20.5; and Garfield, at 20 percent. Counties with the lowest uninsured rates were Davis, with 10.5 percent; Carbon, at 11.6; Box Elder, at 13.3; Tooele, with 13.6; Juab, 13.7; and Weber, 14.8. In Salt Lake County, 16.9 percent of those under age 65 lacked health insurance. In Utah County, 15.1 percent did not have health insurance. Deseret News
Keep in mind that these figures are estimates based on various sources and not actual counts. The full set of estimates can be found at: http://www.census.gov/did/www/sahie/index.html.
