Roughly 17 percent of all adults in the United States lacked health insurance last year, according to Gallup-Healthways Well Being Index.
But state-by-state, uninsured rates varied significantly.
We've already ranked the five states with the highest lowest uninsured rates. The Lone Star State has the highest uninsured rate in the country — the 28.8 percent of adult Texans lacking health coverage in 2012 is the highest for any state since Gallup and Healthways started tracking insurance coverage in January 2008.
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But there are a handful of states with uninsured rates in the single digits.
Here are the nation's top five states with the lowest uninsured rates.
Hawaii
Yet another good list Hawaii is on: The Aloha State has one of the best insured rates in the country, with a 10.5 percent uninsured rate.
Incidentally, Gallup-Healthways this year also ranked Hawaii the No. 1 healthiest state. For the fourth year in a row, residents of the Aloha State report the best sense of overall well-being. Hawaiians are thinner, smoke less, exercise more and tend to have fewer medical problems than any other state residents.
Photo credit: Arvind Balaraman/www.freedigitalphotos.net
Connecticut
Connecticut has a 9.9 percent uninsured rate.
For the most part, the geographic distribution of uninsured rates has remained relatively unchanged over the past five years, with Eastern states tending to have fewer uninsured residents and Southern and Western states having more.
photo: Courtesy of Connecticut Tourism
Delaware
Delaware has a 9.6 percent uninsured rate.
Still, Gallup notes uninsured rates in about half the United States remained higher in 2012 than 2008.
Photo: The Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library in Winterthur, Delaware. Courtesy of Delaware Tourism.
Vermont
Vermont has a 9.2 percent uninsured rate, giving the state the country's second lowest uninsured rate.
Seniors and high-income adults continue to be the least likely to be uninsured, as has been the case since 2008.
Nationwide, the most significant change Gallup found in health insurance trends since the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is that more young adults have gained coverage. It's unclear though whether a particular state's age makeup has played a role in the changes in uninsured rates over the past two years.
Photo credit: EA/freedigitalphotos.net
Massachusetts
Massachusetts — in part due to former Gov. Mitt Romney's state health reform — has the country's best rate of insured individuals, with just a 4.5 percent uninsured rate, according to Gallup numbers. That's even a lower rate than in 2012, when Gallup reported its uninsured rate as 5.2 percent.
President Obama has repeatedly said he used Massachusetts' state health reform as a blueprint for his Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
photo credit: Arvind Balaraman/www.freedigitalphotos.net
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