By Andy Marso
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — The rate of poverty and rate of uninsured declined slightly at the national level in 2013, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The data, from the bureau’s annual American Community Survey, does not include sign-ups for 2014 health insurance from the online marketplace that began this year as part of the federal Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare. Rather, the health insurance figures distributed Tuesday will serve as a baseline to compare future years’ data that include ACA online sign-ups.

Nationally, the uninsured rate dropped from 14.8 percent in 2012 to 14.5 percent in 2013, with a margin of error of 0.1 percent.

In Kansas the uninsured rate dropped from 12.6 percent to 12.3 percent, but the smaller sample size has a margin of error of 0.4 percent, so the state’s dip is not considered statistically significant.

In a conference call Tuesday, census bureau officials did not speculate on the causes of the increased insurance coverage nationwide but said it coincided with a drop poverty. Though median income remained static, the poverty rate dropped as more unemployed and underemployed people found work.

“I think the main reason we’re looking at a drop in poverty rate is the change in full-time employment,” said Chuck Nelson of the census bureau.

The number of American men and women working full-time year-round increased by 2.8 million.

Though the number of Americans living in poverty stayed about the same, the percentage dropped because the nation gained population in 2013.

Nationally, the rate of poverty in children under age 18 fell from 21.8 percent to 19.9 percent, the most significant drop in that category in more than a decade.

Full state level poverty data was not yet available Tuesday. Two-year averages released Tuesday showed Kansas dropping from 14.4 percent in poverty in 2010-11 to 13.6 in 2012-13, but that change fell within the statisticians’ 90 percent confidence margin of plus-or-minus 1.3 percent.