Texas: One in three don't have healthcare

WASHINGTON, March 12 (UPI) -- Texas, where three out of 10 adults do not have health insurance, has the highest uninsured rate, a U.S. poll indicates.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, conducted from January through December 2011, involving more than 350,000 interviews with U.S. adults from all states, indicates Mississippi and Louisiana have high rates of uninsured residents, with about one in four lacking health insurance.

Massachusetts, where state law requires all adults to have health insurance -- had the lowest percentage of uninsured residents -- 4.7 percent.

Nationwide, 16.4 percent of adults were uninsured in 2010, statistically unchanged from 16.2 percent in 2009, but up from 14.8 percent in 2008, the survey indicates.

Seven out of the 10 states with the fewest uninsured residents are in the Northeast, while Southern and Western states have a disproportionately large percentage of uninsured residents, the survey found.

Most states had an increase in the uninsured or had no change in the uninsured in 2010 compared with 2009, except Wyoming, where those who lacked health insurance dropped from 21.1 percent to 16.1 percent.

The total sample had a margin of error of 1 percentage point. Most states had a margin of error of 1 percentage point to 2 percentage points, but smaller population states had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.