The percentage of people in Kentucky without health insurance has dropped to the second-lowest rate in the U.S.According to a Gallup poll released this week, the number of uninsured dropped from over 20 percent in 2013 to about 12 percent as of July 2014, reflecting an 8.5 percent decline since the federal Affordable Care Act took effect. The only other state to experience a sharper decline was Arkansas, where the uninsured rate dropped about 10 percent.The states rounding out the top five after Kentucky are Delaware, Washington and Colorado.Gov. Steve Beshear touted the news in a press release, attributing the new data to the state’s implementation of the ACAvia Kynect,the state’s health insurance exchange.The Gallup poll also reported that the rate of uninsured in 21 states like Kentucky that expanded Medicaid coverage under the ACA and set up their own exchanges declined “more significantly” than those states that did not.As of July, over 520,000 Kentuckians have enrolled in health care through the state exchange, with three-quarters of the newly insured enrolled in Medicaid.
