The number of people in the United States without health insurance coverage rose from 44.8 million (15.3 percent) in 2005 to 47 million (15.8 percent) in 2006, according to the new report Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006 Report, released yesterday. The data were compiled from information collected in the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2007 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement.
Particularly disturbing was the increase in the number of uninsured children--up from 8 million (10.9 percent) in 2005 to 8.7 million (11.7 percent) in 2006. Although the number of uninsured, as well as the rate without health insurance, remained statistically unchanged in 2006 for non-Hispanic whites (at 21.2 million or 10.8 percent), the number and percentage of uninsured blacks increased, from 7 million in 2005 to 7.6 million and from 19 percent in 2005 to 20.5 percent. The number and percentage of uninsured Hispanics also increased, from 14 million (32.3 percent) in 2005 to 15.3 million (34.1 percent). Access the report.
