According to a new report, more than 145,000 women in Kansas were uninsured last year. That’s a little less than 17 percent. But a majority of Hispanic women in Kansas—53.4 percent—have no health insurance. That’s one of the highest rates in the country.
“It is a very shocking number," says Anna Benyo, a senior policy analyst with the National Women’s Law Center. "What the data is showing us is that Hispanic women are disproportionately in poverty, and so they don’t have the funds to be able to purchase insurance, and are probably in households where neither adult has access to coverage through their job.”
The numbers are from the Census Bureau, and do not take immigration status into account. That means one reason for the high rate of uninsurance among Hispanic women could be that some are not in the country legally. Those women would not be eligible for coverage through the new marketplace.
