Worcester has one of state’s largest pockets of uninsured

A new study shows Worcester had one of the state's largest pockets of people without health insurance between 2013 and 2017, even as the state's average percentage of uninsured people remained low.

An average of 6,035 people in Worcester were without health insurance over the five-year period, or about 3.3% of the city's population, according to calculations from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation.

That was the third-largest pocket of uninsurance in the state, behind Boston, with an average of 25,703 uninsured residents, and Springfield, with an average 6,904 uninsured people.

As of 2017, the foundation reported, an estimated 2.8% of Massachusetts residents lacked health insurance.

The foundation, a charitable arm of health insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, identified part of Worcester that includes the Main South, College Hill and Vernon Hill neighborhoods as one of the state's persistent "hot spots" of uninsured residents.

Hot spots also coincided with pockets of poverty and places where people faced burdensome housing costs, the foundation reported. Many of the uninsured were younger men, as well.

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