Rhode Island Health Insurance

How healthy is living
in Rhode Island?

Rhode Island is up three spots to 10th in the 2012 edition of America's Health Rankings® by the United Health Foundation.

The good news:

• The percentage of children in poverty declined from 20.4 percent in 2011 to 17.5 percent in 2012. However, the rate was 10.7 percent in 2003.
• Public health funding has increased by $20 per person during the past five years..

The bad news:

• About one in five adults smoke and engage in binge drinking.
• he high school graduation rate is moderate, with about 25 percent of ninth-graders failing to complete high school in four years.

Rhode Island's best and worst category rankings:

• Immunization Coverage – 2nd
• Geographic Disparity – 2nd
• Primary Care Physicians – 3rd
• Preventable Hospitalizations – 36th
• Poor Physical Health Days – 38th
• Poor Mental Health Days – 42nd

more details

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

get local health results

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

Does Rhode Island have a health insurance high risk pool?

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

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

Rhode Island state government health insurance resources

State of Rhode Island Healthcare Reform Commission —  Created by executive order of Governor Lincoln Chafee to make Rhode Island a leader in implementing national health care reform.

Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner —  A dedicated office to aid health insurance consumers and promote the state health care system. Follow the links at left to access consumer information.

How did Rhode Island 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)

• David Cicilline

• James Langevin