Louisiana uninsured rate falls to 10.3 percent in new data

BATON ROUGE - The number of Louisiana residents covered by health insurance edged up last year, according to new U.S. Census data tracking state uninsured rates.

The data show that 10.3 percent of Louisiana residents were uninsured in 2016, a drop from 11.9 percent the previous year.

Louisiana's uninsured rate remains higher than the national average of 8.6 percent, but it's down significantly from four years ago, when 16.6 percent of residents had no insurance coverage in 2013.

The decline in uninsured people comes as the federal health care law required more people to have health insurance.

The most recent drop in Louisiana's percentage of people without health insurance coverage comes after Gov. John Bel Edwards expanded Louisiana's Medicaid program to offer government-financed health insurance to more than 434,000 low-income adults.