Kentucky Health Insurance

How healthy is living
in Kentucky?

Kentucky – consistently ranked in the bottom 20 percent of states – is ranked 44th in the United Health Foundation's 2012 comparison of health status across the 50 states.

The good news:

• Immunization rates for young children increased 2.5 percentage points to 92.2 percent in 2012.

The bad news:

• Kentucky has the nation's highest percentage of adult smokers: 29.0 percent.
• Obesity rates top 30 percent, and 29.3 percent of adults are physically inactive.
• Kentucky rates 44th in air quality.

Kentucky's best and worst category rankings:

• Binge Drinking – 9th
• Violent Crime – 10th
• Immunization Coverage – 14th
• Preventable Hospitalizations – 50th
• Smoking – 50th
• Cancer Deaths – 50th

more details

• See the United Health Foundation's latest findings on Kentucky.
• Trust for America's Health ia another source for key Kentucky 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 Kentucky here.

get local health results

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

Does Kentucky have a health insurance high risk pool?

Kentucky Access
Toll-free 1-866-405-6145

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

• 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 Kentucky.
• The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is tracking the progress of health insurance reform in each state. Its page for Kentucky 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 Kentucky health insurance plan report cards.

Kentucky state government health insurance resources

Kentucky Health Care Reform —  The Kentucky Department of Insurance is working to implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Kentucky State Publications on Health Insurance —  Brings you down to the health insurance section.

Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services —  The health insurance section of the official state site.

How did Kentucky 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]

Yes (4)

• Geoff Davis
• Brett Guthrie

• Harold Rogers
• Edward Whitfield

Our
Pick

No (2)

• Ben Chandler
• John Yarmuth