Below-average Washington

The state of Washington is below average. And that’s a good thing.

The Kaiser Family Foundation has created a sort of report card for the states, detailing the percentage of the population that is uninsured.

In Washington, 13 percent of the population is uninsured. Nationwide, 16 percent of people are uninsured.

Massachusetts has the lowest percentage of uninsured (5 percent), which isn’t surprising since Massachusetts has universal health care.

Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured folks – 25 percent of the state’s population.

In Washington, 51 percent of people receive insurance through their employer and 6 percent have individual insurance plans.

About 15 percent of the state’s population receives Medicaid benefits, 12 percent have Medicare and 3 percent receive benefits from other sources, which include people covered by the military or Veterans Affairs.

Those numbers could change, of course, if the state continues with its plan to implement Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act.

I took a look at what the expansion will mean for Washingtonians. You can check out the story, which ran in Sunday’s Columbian, on our website.