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Kansas, Missouri Enrollment In Health Insurance Marketplace Surges

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

The enrollment period for the federal health insurance marketplace closed Monday night, with higher enrollment than last year in both Kansas and Missouri. But as Heartland Health Monitor’s Bryan Thompson explains, the numbers don’t tell the whole story.

Prior to the Affordable Care Act, the number of Americans without health insurance ranged from about 15 to 18 percent. Now, it’s below 10 percent for the first time ever.

But progress in Kansas has been slower than the nation as a whole, according to Health Reform Resource Project director Sheldon Weisgrau.

“It has dropped, but it has not dropped as rapidly as it has in all the states that have expanded their Medicaid programs. And so Kansas may well now be above the national average in uninsurance, which would be a historical turnaround," Weisgrau says.

More than 101,000 Kansans enrolled in the federal marketplace this season. Missouri had more than 290,000 enrollees.