Author
Jennifer Wessel, JD, MPH
Senior Policy Analyst and Data Privacy Officer
Contact
ACHI Communications
501-526-2244
jlyon@achi.net
The number of uninsured Arkansans decreased by nearly 25,000 from 2021 to 2022, according to data from the Small Area Health Insurance Estimates program released July 25 by the U.S. Census Bureau. Significant disparities in uninsured rates exist across the state, however, with a handful of counties seeing increases.
Arkansas reduced its uninsured rate among nonelderly individuals from 18.8% in 2013, before the major provisions of the Affordable Care Act took effect and Medicaid expansion coverage began in the state, to 10% — slightly above the national average of 9.5% — in 2022. In comparison, neighboring states had varied rates in 2022: Louisiana at 8.3%, Missouri at 10.2%, Tennessee at 11.1%, Mississippi at 13.1%, Oklahoma at 14.3%, and Texas at 18.8% (the highest rate in the country).
County-level uninsured rates in Arkansas in 2022 ranged from 7.1% in Grant County to 15.5% in Sevier County. Decreases have been especially large in some counties, such as Searcy County, where the uninsured rate dropped from 25% in 2013 to 9.2% in 2022 — a 63.2% decrease.
Not all Arkansas counties experienced declines in uninsured rates between 2021 and 2022. Six counties — Baxter, Chicot, Craighead, Izard, Lee, and Washington — saw increases, the largest being in Lee County, where the uninsured rate increased by 16.1%.
The end of the pandemic-era pause on Medicaid disenrollments, also known as the Medicaid “unwinding,” likely has impacted Arkansas’s uninsured rate. Medicaid enrollment in Arkansas decreased from 1,151,347 in March 2023 to 868,059 in April 2024, with the latter being approximately 5% below the average total enrollment in 2019.
For more information about the Medicaid unwinding in Arkansas, see the article ACHI President and CEO Dr. Joe Thompson and ACHI Health Policy Director Craig Wilson wrote on the topic for Health Affairs.
