Americans Without Health Insurance Rises by 2 Million to 43.6 Million

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) released a new report this week showing a rise in the number of uninsured Americans from 2005 to 2006. According to the report, 2 million more Americans have no health insurance, up 6% from 2005. This brings the total number of uninsured Americans to around 43.6 million in 2006 (15% of the population).

Adults aged 18-64 without health care accounted for most of the estimated rise, from 34.5 million in 2005 to 36.5 million in 2006 (20% of this age group). The increase is attributed to employers dropping expensive health insurance coverage and private health insurance coverage being too expensive. Uninsured children went up slightly from 2005 to 2006, from 6.5 million to 6.8 million (9.3% of this age group). However, from 1997 to 2006, the number of uninsured children has dropped significantly, from 10 million to 7 million. The federal program called State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) started in 1997 and is probably the reason for the 10-year drop.

Below are the statistics by state that are alarming, especially for uninsured children. If you live in a state that has a high rate of uninsured children, you should contact your state legislators and demand the state participate in the federal SCHIP program at the very least. Perhaps these states offer the SCHIP program but do not publicize it. State taxpayers are paying the burden for medical costs of their uninsured population. For more information about state coverage initiatives for children, click here. For more information about a children's health insurance program being considered in Congress right now, click here.

Also interesting, are the states with the lowest number of uninsured population of all ages. The five states with the lowest uninsured rate are geographically bunched in the Midwest and Northeast. It may be that legislators and governors from those states are more aggressive for protecting their citizens, or perhaps those states have stronger union representation for their workers.