Almost One-Quarter Of Florida Residents Under Age 65 Lack Health Insurance

October 10, 2008 1:41 p.m. EST

Tallahassee, FL (AHN) - Some 24 percent of Florida residents under the age of 65 don't have health insurance, meaning the state has the third highest rate of uninsured citizens behind only New Mexico at 24.2 percent and Texas with 26.3 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Nationwide, only 17.2 percent of people younger than 65 lack health insurance, with residents of Hawaii, at 9.7 percent, and Wisconsin, at 10.3 percent, having the lowest percentage of people in that category. .

The statistics were released Thursday and are for 2005, the latest year analyzed, some experts say the number is higher now.

Within Florida, the rates of uninsured ranged from a low of 15.3 percent in Baker County to a high of 37.3 percent in DeSoto County.

Baker County is considered a bedroom county to Jackson County, where Jacksonville is located. Jackson County had an 18.1 percent uninsured rate, while further down the east coast heavily populated Miami-Dade County, at the southern end of the state, had a rate of 29.6 percent.

Most people who have health insurance have a group policy through their employer.

Annual health insurance premiums for family health coverage provided through the workplace in Florida increased from $6,812 per year in 2000 to $11,720 per year in 2007, a 72 percent. Employers generally pick up the majority of the health insurance premium cost, which is a good thing for Florida workers who only saw their median earnings increase by 20.2 percent in that time period, from $22,753 to $27,353.

America is the only industrialized nation that does not provide national health insurance. The costs of health insurance are passed along in the price of goods and services, which makes American-manufactured goods cost more than the same goods manufactured in other industrialized nations, or than in countries such as China.