Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Gov. Brian Sandoval wants Legislature to reduce number of uninsured Nevadans

Nevada has the second-highest rate in the nation of residents without health insurance. Gov. Brian Sandoval's administration wants to improve that by making it a priority in the 2013 Legislature.

Mike Willden, director of the state Department of Health and Human Services, said today that 23 percent of Nevadans don't have health insurance. Seventeen 17 percent of children are not insured, the highest in the nation according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Willden told the Grants Management Advisory Committee that the administration is looking at cost and affordability to improve the rate of coverage.

The committee is setting priorities on where to allocate the millions of dollars used to aid the needy. It won't make its recommendations until next year.

Among the proposals being studied is increasing the percentage of women who seek prenatal care and deliver babies full-term, said Willden. According to the United Health Foundation, 73 percent of Nevada women receive prenatal care in the first three months of pregnancy, the second-lowest in the nation. And 8 percent of babies are born weighing less than 5.5 pounds which is 22nd lowest in the nation.

The teen birth rate in Nevada is 55 per 1,000 females 15 to 19, the eighth highest in the nation.

Another priority will be lowering the youth suicide rate in Nevada. Willden said about one in 10 high school students attempts suicide, putting Nevada at the fourth highest in the nation. "That's horrible," Willden said.

He said the state won't be able to cure all the problems in the 2013 Legislature but it can get started.

The 2011 budget was drawn up mostly by the administration of Gov. Jim Gibbons, before Sandoval took office. He said Sandoval wants to improve spending. Agencies have until September to submit requests to the state Budget Office.

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