Florida had the third-largest uninsured population in the nation in 2007, with more than 24 percent of its population lacking health insurance, according to the latest figures released by the United States Census Bureau.

Texas lead the nation with 26.8 percent uninsured, followed by New Mexico, with 26.7 percent. The Census Bureau placed the percentage of people without health insurance nationally at 15.3 percent in 2007.

The figures -- known as the Small Area Health Insurance Estimates -- provide the most up-to-date-information available on a micro level, showing the breakdown of uninsured population by county, as well as income level, gender and race. The report, which focuses on those under the age of 65, was released this week.

A closer look at Florida-specific data shows that DeSoto County had the highest percent of uninsured residents in the state in 2007, with 37 percent of the population lacking insurance.

Miami-Dade County leads the pack with the largest number of uninsured people in the state, with 602,000 residents lacking coverage in 2007. 

While Gov. Charlie Crist helped create a program to deal with the uninsured, Cover Florida has had only limited success. By the end of March, the program had only enrolled a little more than 6,000 people statewide. A program championed by former House Speaker Marco Rubio to help with health insurance has not yet gotten off the ground.

Meanwhile, Republicans have fought against federal health care reform. Attorney General Bill McCollum filed a lawsuit to block federal health care reform and state legislators placed a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would ban any mandates to require residents to purchase health insurance.

The latest Census numbers - which include county by county figures - show that there a mix of both rural and urban counties with large numbers of uninsured residents.

DeSoto County led the state with an uninsured rate of 37 percent. But Miami-Dade County has an uninsured rate of 30.2 percent, while Monroe County's rate was 29.8 percent. Miami-Dade also had the highest actual total number of uninsured people with nearly 603,000 people without health insurance.

The counties with the highest percentage of uninsured are:

DeSoto: 37%
Hendry 34.8%
Lafayette 34.7%
Hardee 33.4%
Miami-Dade 30.2%
Monroe 29.8%
Martin 26.5%
Levy 25.9%

The counties with the highest number of uninsured people are:

Miami-Dade 602,864
Broward 404,460
Palm Beach 244,232
Hillsborough 217,661
Orange 215,234
Duval 141,302
Pinellas 138,038
Lee 128,904

Originally published in the Florida Current - exclusively distributed via Lobbytools  - Florida's Premiere Legislative and Media Monitoring Service.