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How Poverty Affects Those Without Kansas Health Insurance

The likelihood of being uninsured decreases as family income increases. Kansans with family incomes that fall below 100 percent of the poverty level are most likely to be uninsured. For a family of three in 2009, this means having a gross monthly income of less than $1,526. Twenty-eight percent of Kansans living in poverty are uninsured.

Consistent with the increase in the number of Kansans living in poverty since 2000-2001, the number of uninsured Kansans living in poverty has grown to more than 94,000. This represents an increase of almost 28,000 since 2000-2001. Insurance status is closely tied to family income for a variety of reasons. Higher-wage employees are more likely to have health insurance available to them through their employers, and are more able to afford coverage.

While being uninsured is potentially a problem for Kansans of all incomes, it is a particular problem for those with low incomes. People living in poverty or near-poverty are more likely to suffer health problems due to the social disadvantages that they must contend with, such as job insecurity, unsafe neighborhoods and limited access to healthy and affordable food. Therefore, those that are most in need of health services face the greatest barriers to receiving that care.

Kansans with low-incomes are more likely to be uninsured than those with higher incomes. However, Kansans with family incomes at or above 200 percent of the poverty level are more likely to be uninsured now than earlier in the decade.

Figure 16 breaks down the uninsured population in Kansas by family income. More than half of uninsured Kansans, about 56 percent, have incomes less than 200 percent of the poverty level.

Twenty-six percent, or about one-fourth, of uninsured Kansans live in middle-income families, those with incomes between 200 and 400 percent of the poverty level. And almost 20 percent of the uninsured have family incomes that are 400 percent of the poverty level or more. The share of the uninsured with family incomes at or above 400 percent of the poverty level increased from 13 percent in 2005-2006.

Uninsured Children by Poverty Status

Kansas HealthWave is the state program that combines Medicaid and SCHIP to provide health insurance to children living in low-income families as well as some adults. Eligibility for HealthWave is based on multiple criteria; for children, one of the primary factors is the level of family income. Children must have family incomes at or below 200 percent of the poverty level. As mentioned previously, for a family of three in 2009, this means a gross monthly income of $3,052 or less.

The 2008 Kansas Legislature raised the income eligibility threshold to 250 percent of the 2008 poverty level, to be phased in contingent on the availability of federal funds. While federal funding for an SCHIP expansion was approved in February 2009, state funds for the expansion had not been appropriated when this report was published.

Roughly 63 percent of uninsured Kansas children may be eligible for HealthWave under current income guidelines. This translates to about 36,000 children.

Children may be eligible for HealthWave but not enrolled for a variety of reasons. For example, some parents may not know about the program, others may choose not to enroll their children, while others may be deterred by what they perceive to be a cumbersome enrollment process.

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