I was curious about who will be required to get insurance under Obamacare in New York State. I was wondering if it would be mostly Upstaters or Downstaters, people from the cities or rural areas, or if it would primarily impact people from a certain region of state.

Fortunately, the Center for Medicare Services, puts that data on a website that can be relatively easily imported into your GIS program and linked against the 2000 PUMA TIGER/line.

First the uninsured. In general, people who live in suburbs and downstate, are most likely to be insured. In the suburbs, there are often 6-7% uninsured, versus some rural areas where the uninsured can be around 12-14%. Poor, urban areas often have pretty high rates of uninsured too.

This is not surprising, as these regions are wealthiest. If you have assets, your going to want to protect them should you get injured or sick, with insurance.

Roughly half of the uninsured will simply get Medicaid under Obamacare, varying a bit by region.

By expanding Medicaid, many of the working poor will be able to get quality healthcare, insuring a sizable portion of the uninsured in New York.

Then, 2-6% of the population, depending on region of state, will have to buy an insurance policy on the Marketplace, or pay an uninsured tax. Between employer-based insurance, Medicaid, and other social programs, the 94% to 98% of state won’t have to buy any additional insurance from what they are currently getting.

To assist the 2-6% of state which must by insurance on the market, a vast majority of uninsured will receive premium assistance, that will make the actual cost much lower.