Fewer Iowans lack insurance, Census report says

The number of Iowans without health insurances continues to decline, according to new Census data.

Five percent of Iowans lacked insurance in 2015, down from 6.2 percent in 2014 and 8.1 percent in 2013, according to the data released Tuesday as part of a national report on health insurance coverage.

In all, about 155,000 Iowans don't have insurance. That's down from about 248,000 two years earlier, a 38 percent drop.

The decline in uninsured residents follows Iowa's 2013 expansion of Medicaid, which provides insurance to children, people with disabilities and people with low income. Medicaid expansion was part of the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, which also implemented several other changes aimed at increasing insurance coverage. It required more employers to offer insurance, created subsidies for moderate-income individuals to buy private insurance and enacted penalties for people who don't buy health insurance.

Nationally, 9.4 percent of people lack insurance. Only five other states, including the District of Columbia, had a lower uninsured rate than Iowa.

Iowa also had a lower rate of uninsured residents than all the states it borders, except for Minnesota, where 4.5 percent of residents lack insurance.