A new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows 52 million adults have pre-existing health conditions that would likely make them uninsurable.
The analysis shows 52 million adults under 65 — about 27% of that population — have pre-existing health conditions that would make them uninsurable if they applied for health coverage under medical underwriting practices that existed in most states before insurance regulation changes made by the Affordable Care Act.
In the following 11 states, at least three in 10 non-elderly adults would have a declinable condition:
- West Virginia (36%)
- Mississippi (34%)
- Kentucky (33%)
- Alabama (33%)
- Arkansas (32%)
- Tennessee (32%)
- Oklahoma (31%)
- Louisiana (30%)
- Missouri (30%)
- Indiana (30%)
- Kansas (30%)
States with the most people estimated to have the conditions include:
- California (5,865,000)
- Texas (4,536,000)
- Florida (3,116,000)
KFF examined data from the National Health Interview Survey and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and analyzed underwriting manuals utilized in the individual market before the ACA removed pre-existing conditions.
