Hawaii Health Insurance

How healthy is living
in Hawaii?

Hawaii is the second healthiest state to live in according to the 2012 America's Health Rankings® from the United Health Foundation.

The good news:

• The obesity rate in Hawaii is low compared to other states, yet 234,000 adults are considered obese.
• Hawaiians have good access to primary care physicians, and a low uninsured rate.

The bad news:

• Air pollution in Hawaii has increased during the past five years.
• The percentage of children in poverty increased about 5 percentage points over the past five years; it's now at 15.9 percent.

Hawaii's best and worst category rankings:

• Public Health Funding – 1st
• Preventable Hospitalizations – 1st
• Poor Mental Health Days – 1st
• High School Graduation – 30th
• Low Birth Weight – 30th
• Binge Drinking – 43rd

more details

• See the United Health Foundation's latest findings on Hawaii.
• Trust for America's Health ia another source for key Hawaii health quality findings. In addition, 2010's federal health reform, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included the creation of a prevention fund to provide more than $16 billion over the next 10 years to invest in effective, proven prevention efforts, like childhood obesity prevention and tobacco cessation, and the site has a report on how it impacts Hawaii here.

get local health results

State snapshot too large? Get county-by-county health rankings for Hawaii, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin.

Does Hawaii have a health insurance high risk pool?

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Starting in 2010, Hawaii started offering health care insurance coverage to residents through the federally established temporary high-risk pool program. To find out more about Hawaii's participation, click here.

Risk pools are state-sponsored programs to help people with a history of medical problems in their family to purchase coverage. These pools are for people who can afford to buy health insurance, but are not able to get underwritten in the private market because of a pre-existing health condition. These programs can vary significantly from state to state in price, benefits and number of people served. Often insurance companies doing business in the state are required to contribute to the pool to keep it in the black. In the best cases, they allow people to be able to switch jobs or become self-employed without the fear of losing their health insurance coverage. Read more about risk pools here.

Non-profit sources of health insurance information for Hawaii

• The Foundation for Health Coverage Education's mission is to provide simplified public and private health insurance eligibility information in order to help more people access coverage. Here is its guide on how to find health insurance in Hawaii.
• The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is tracking the progress of health insurance reform in each state. Its page for Hawaii can be found here.
• The National Committee for Quality Assurance is a private, non-profit organization that, among other things, provides health care plan report cards for consumers. Search for Hawaii health insurance plan report cards.

Hawaii state government health insurance resources

Med-QUEST —  The medical assistance program (Medicaid) which provides health insurance coverage to eligible Hawaiians It covers all ages 64 and under but has certain requirements and income eligibility guidelines.

Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Services Health Insurance —  Health insurance resources from the state of Hawaii including severable downloadable PDFs

How did Hawaii officials vote on health reform?

H.R.2: Repealing the Health Care Bill

#14

Date of Vote: 1/19/2011 Status: House passed 245-189, 1 not voting

HOUSE|SENATE

1/19/2011--Passed House amended. Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act - Repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, effective as of its enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by such Act. Repeals the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, effective as of the Act's enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by the Act's health care provisions. [more]

Our
Pick

No (2)

• Colleen Hanabusa

• Mazie Hirono