More South Dakotans Gained Health Insurance Coverage in 2016
More South Dakotans gained health insurance coverage in 2017, according to federal data. The state's overall uninsured rate dropped from 10.3% in 2016 to 9.1% in 2017. This places the Rushmore State near the national uninsured rate of 8.7% in 2017, also down from 2016 at 10.0%.
For health insurance coverage, South Dakota ranked 35th among the 50 states, behind first-place Massachusetts at 2.8% and ahead of last-place Texas at 17.3%. Regionally, South Dakota outranked No. 45 Wyoming with a 12.3% uninsured rate. No. 3 Minnesota led the region with just 4.4% of its population under 65 without insurance.For those under 18, South Dakota ranked 33rd, up seven places from 44th in 2015. Just 4.5% of individuals under 18 were without health insurance in 2016—the same rate as the national rate. Massachusetts ranked first in this category at 0.9% in 2016. Alaska was last, at 10.0%.
Just 11.8% of individuals under 18 were without health insurance in 2017. The group with the highest rate of being uninsured were those aged 26 to 34, with a rate of 18.6%.
Of the Rushmore State’s metropolitan areas, the Rapid City metro area’s uninsured rate measured at 11.1%. By comparison, the Sioux Falls metro area dipped to 7.1% in 2017 from 2016’s 8.8% - the Sioux City metro area rate jumped to 8.4% from 6.3%
