TOPEKA (KSNT) — As federal policies continue to impact health care coverage in Kansas; a new report shows that the Sunflower State is falling behind national averages when it comes to uninsured rates.
On Thursday, Oct 29, the U.S. Census Bureau (USCB) released its annual health care coverage report. The data shows that as of 2025, the latest year that the data is available, 9.7% of Kansans don’t have health insurance. The national average is 8.4%.
This means that in Kansas, about 280,000 people were uninsured, including about 60,000 children. These individuals are required to pay full price for medical care including regular checkups to lifesaving surgeries.
Our Kansas Capitol Bureau spoke with Sheena Schmidt, a senior analyst at the Kansas Health Institute (KHI), who said this is a big problem for these people.
“When you have health insurance, you get access to the care you need,” Schmidt said. “You can go to the doctor; you may not wait until you are so sick that you have to go to the emergency room or hospital to get care. Something is persisting in Kansas that is making the uninsured rate continue to go up.”
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The USCB report includes several other data points that show concerning disparities when it comes to gender and race.
- Kansas uninsured rate by gender: 10.2% male, 9.2% female
- Kansas uninsured rate by race: 7.3% White, 10.4% Black, 22.9% Hispanic
“I think listening is really important and understanding what those specific populations and their communications are dealing with and what barriers they might experience,” Schmidt said. “If we understand and listen to what the barriers are then we can understand what policy options or what solutions might work.”
Health experts are also looking to another data point they are finding to be particularly concerning for the state of Kansas; the uninsured rate among younger Kansans.
- Uninsured rate among Kansans ages 0-18: 8.5%
- Uninsured rate among U.S citizens ages 0-18: 6.1%
To address the growing issue of uninsured children here in Kansas, the KHI is hosting an in-person and online discussion, open to the public. The goal of the seminar is to help Kansans understand why the state is seeing a rise in uninsured children from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Nov. 5. For more details and to learn about how you can sign up, visit the KHI website.
Why is Kansas falling behind?
Experts from the KHI believe that affordability is one of the big drivers behind why more Kansans are losing health care coverage.
“We’re seeing higher costs for premiums for health insurance plans,” Schmidt said. “That may be making insurance unaffordable for families or specifically, they may not be able to afford family plans to cover the whole family.”
Additionally, Kansas is one of 10 states in the country that has not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The expansion would give Medicaid eligibility to adults ages 19-64 with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level.
“Kansas is one of a few states that hasn’t expanded Medicaid,” Schmidt said. “We’re seeing that play out in the data. It’s something the legislature might want to wrestle with. They’ve considered Medicaid expansion in the past but that has not happened.”
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However, many members of the Kansas Legislature are opposed to expanding Medicaid here in the state of Kansas. This includes Kansas House Speaker Daniel Hawkins. Our Kansas Capitol Bureau reached out to Hawkins to address this topic, and he provided the following statement:
“I’ve never believed that adding more people to a government program is automatically the same thing as improving access to care,” Hawkins said. “House Republicans have been focused on strengthening our health care workforce, supporting rural hospitals, and making sure the truly needy Kansans who already depend on Medicaid can access the care they need.”
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