Oregon Public Broadcasting

The U.S. Census has just released its most detailed estimates on people with and without health insurance.  The survey shows wide variation in health coverage within the region.  Correspondent Tom Banse reports.

For example, ritzy resort and retirement havens -- like Sun Valley or the San Juan Islands -- have some of the region’s highest percentages of people going uninsured.

They make downtrodden timber counties look comparatively good on health coverage.

Health policy researcher Aaron Katz is as puzzled as we are.  But the University of Washington lecturer can explain why the big urban counties come out the best.

Aaron Katz: “What you tend to have in cities and urban areas is you have a higher proportion of people who work for larger businesses and larger business are more likely to offer coverage than small businesses.”

The U.S. Census reports more people lacking health insurance than Oregon and Washington found when the states did their own surveys. 

A state demographer in Olympia is suspicious of the data for thinly settled counties because the sample sizes are very small. 

The Census says more than 18 percent of Oregonians lack health insurance.  That’s the statewide average for people under the age of 65.

Places with much better coverage rates include struggling Josephine and Coos Counties and urban Clackamas County.  The ranching and farming country of north central Oregon has the highest rates of uninsured in the state.