Last year, 7 percent of Illinois residents, or about 875,000 people, had no health insurance, according to U.S. Census data released Thursday.

This number is up slightly from about 6.8% in 2020, but this year’s margin of error was 0.2.

About 8.6% of people nationwide had no insurance last year, according to data from the Census’ American Community Survey.

Illinois’ relatively stable uninsured rate may be due to the introduction of federal protections during the pandemic, said associate director of medical legal affairs at a Chicago-based insurance company. says Stephanie Becker. Poverty Law Schreiber Center.

During the pandemic, the federal government banned states that accepted additional Medicaid funding from kicking people out of Medicaid, state- and federally-funded health insurance for low-income people. In the pre-pandemic era, Medicaid coverage had to be renewed regularly, and some people lost it because they were no longer eligible, while others lost it because of administrative issues like not sending paperwork. There were also people.

Also in 2021, President Joe Biden signed into law a bill to increase and extend subsidies to offset monthly costs of health insurance purchased through the Affordable Care Act exchange at healthcare.gov. These enhanced subsidies were recently extended through 2025 with the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act.

“These two things combined, I think this administration is going to help people keep their current health insurance through Medicaid and get more affordable health insurance through the[Affordable Care Act]marketplace. It’s a big policy choice we’ve taken,” Becker said.

However, disparities remain.

The proportion of uninsured black and Latino Illinois residents was much higher than the proportion of uninsured whites. 15.8% of Hispanic or Latino residents had no insurance, compared to only 4.3% of whites.

“This is a legacy of systemic inequalities in health insurance, not just in Illinois, but across the country,” Becker said. She also said some people don’t have the option of getting insurance through their employer.

According to a new Census report, in 2021, about 59% of Illinois residents will have health insurance through their employer, and about 35% will have insurance through public programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. rice field.

Last year, while the number of Medicaid subscribers increased nationally, the percentage of people with private insurance, such as through their employer, declined, said a research professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy’s Center for Health Insurance Reform. Sabrina Corlett pointed out. She said the rising cost of providing insurance for employers has made it difficult for many to provide coverage, or that some of the increased costs have been offset, such as through premium increases. He said it was meant to be passed on to workers.

In Illinois, those with household incomes between $25,000 and $49,999 had the highest percentage of uninsured by income. About 10.8% of people in that income bracket in Illinois were uninsured.

This is because people in that range may not be eligible for Medicaid and may be unaware that they are more likely to receive low-cost coverage through affordable health care replacements due to subsidies. Alternatively, even low-cost exchange compensation may still be too expensive for them, she said.

“I talk to a lot of people who are worried. Health insurance is always a concern for them,” Becker said. “They’re done counting, they’re making choices. They feel like it’s a trade-off between food and gas… sometimes they don’t know about the options out there.”