As we noted right after the numbers were  released, last week’s Census Bureau report on health insurance coverage provided some unexpectedly good news for Oklahoma. While the nation as a whole saw an increase in the number of uninsured, which has now reached 46.3 million, Oklahoma saw a substantial drop in both its number and rate of uninsured. Using the 2-year averages recommended by the Bureau when reporting state-level data, Oklahoma’s  uninsured rate for  persons of all ages fell from 18.3 percent in 2006-07 to 15.9 percent in 2007-08. The reported number of uninsured Oklahomans declined from 646,000 in 2006-07 to 565,000 in 2007-08. Oklahoma’s  2-year average uninsured rate now exceeds the national average by less than one percentage point (15.3 percent national to 15.9 percent Oklahoma). Read the rest of this entry »