| Today the Texas Tribune released an interactive map showing the uninsured in Texas by city - all 5.7 million of them. They also include a breakdown by demographics.
In December, the Tribune released data on food stamp use by county, which we blogged about here. The concentrations of uninsured are, unsurprisingly, similar to the concentrations of food stamp use - found mostly in the major cities and the Rio Grande Valley. While these maps and data sets are indeed fun to play with, they're a sad reminder of how impacted some of these areas are on so many indicators of poverty.
Some notable lowlights from the Tribune data:
- Nearly a quarter of Texas' population lacked health insurance in 2010, compared to the national average of 15 percent.
- Of the four largest cities, Dallas has the highest percentage of uninsured at 33%, followed by Houston at 31%. Even sadder are the correlating uninsured rates for children - 24% of Dallas children are uninsured, followed by 21% of Houston children. San Antonio and Austin fare much better, at 22% and 23% respectively overall with uninsured rates for children in the teens, but still significantly above the national average.
- It's not just the big cities with the high rates of uninsured - looking at the map you certainly see clusters of high uninsured rates along the Dallas-Houston-San Antonio triangle and in the Valley, but there are highly impacted rural areas as well: places like Socorro (42%), West Odessa (41%), Eagle Pass (31%), Del Rio (29%), and Sherman (29%), to name a few.
- San Juan has the highest rate of uninsured in the state at an unbelievable 45%, with over 25% of its children uninsured.
- The lowest rates of uninsured are generally about where you'd expect - places like Southlake, Colleyville, The Woodlands, and Sugarland.
As health care remains a central issue of the 2012 elections from the national level down to the local, it's important to remember how Texas fares on this indicator: not well. |
