Health Insurance Coverage in North Carolina: The Rural-Urban Uninsured Gap
Background
One of the primary drivers of health is being covered by health insurance. A review of available literature found a wide range of effects of health insurance, including a 20% relative reduction in mortality among previously uninsured people who become eligible for Medicare [1]. Many factors lead to lower rates of health insurance coverage in rural areas compared to urban areas: for example, rural residents typically have lower incomes [2], more employment in small businesses [3] that are often economically unable to provide health insurance for their employees [4, 5], and lower enrollment in the Health Insurance Marketplace (“Obamacare” plans) [6]. In this piece, we present data on the disparity in health insurance coverage between urban (metropolitan) and rural (nonmetropolitan) counties in North Carolina.