In 2010, a U.S. Census Bureau report revealed that approximately 13% of all Americans were living below the poverty line in 2007. This figure is higher than in 2000, when the poverty rate was 12.2%. This translates to an increase of approximately 4.75 million Americans living below the poverty line. Individuals and families living below the poverty line face many obstacles, the least of which is access to health care. In many cases, those living below the poverty line are without any form of health insurance. Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, analyze the relationship between living below the poverty line and access to health care.

a. Construct a scatterplot, predicting the percentage without health insurance with the percentage living below the poverty level. Does it appear that a straight-line relationship will fit the data?
b. Calculate the regression equation with percentage of the population without health insurance as the dependent variable, and draw the regression line on the scatterplot. What is its slope? What is the intercept? Has your opinion changed about whether a straight line seems to fit the data? Are there any states that fall far from the regression line? Which one(s)?
c. What percentage of the population must be living below the poverty line to obtain a predicted value of 5% without health insurance?
d. Predicting a value that falls beyond the observed range of the two variables in a regression is problematic at best, so your answer in (c) isn't necessarily statistically believable. However, what is a nonstatistical, or substantive, reason? Why might making such a prediction be important?

State Alabama California Idaho Louisiana New Jersey New York Pennsylvania Percentage Below Poverty Line (2007) 16.9 12.4 12.1 18.6 8.6 13.7 11.6 12.0 15.0 16.3 11.4 10.8 Percentage Without Health Insurance (2007) 12.0 18.2 13.9 18.5 15.8 13.2 9.5 10.8 16.4 25.2 11.3 8.2 Rhode Island South Carolina Texas Washington Wisconsin