More state residents have health insurance

More than 97 percent of Massachusetts residents have health insurance, the highest level since the state enacted a near-universal mandate for coverage two years ago. A survey by The Boston Globe and the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation found similar rates of coverage.

A report issued today by the Urban Institute found that 167,000 people – or 2.6 percent of the state’s residents -- did not have insurance when they conducted a poll this summer. Last year the US Census Bureau gauged the insurance rate at 95 percent in Massachusetts, making it the state with the highest coverage in the country.

The rates of coverage did vary with income and age. While almost all of those with income above 500 percent of the federal poverty level had health coverage, only 95 percent of people whose income fell below 300 percent of the federal poverty level were insured.

More than 99 percent of elderly adults, more than 98 percent of children, and more than 96 percent of working-age adults had health insurance. Thirteen percent of Hispanic residents were uninsured compared to 3 percent of non-Hispanic residents.

“These survey results are a clear endorsement of our approach to covering the uninsured but also point to the critical need to tackle the unsustainable growth in health care costs in order to protect the progress we have made,” Sarah Iselin, commissioner of the state Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, said in a statement.