According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of uninsured people in the country went down slightly from 2006 to 2007, dropping from 47 million to 45.7 million. Here are a few other items from the report:

• The percentage without insurance dropped from 15.8% to 15.3% from 2006 to 2007.
• The number of people with any form of insurance went up from 249.8 million to 253.4 million.
• The change in the number of people with private health insurance was not statistically significant, putting the number at 202 million. However, the percentage of people with private insurance did go down (on a statistically significant basis), from 67.9% to 67.5%. 
• While the number of people with employment-based insurance did not significantly change (177.4 million), their percentage of the population went down to 59.3%, from 59.7%. Thus, employment-based insurance is still the single largest component of insurance.
• The number of people in government health care did go up significantly, from 80.3 million to 83 million.
  

Here's the fact that often goes overlooked in discussions of the number of uninsured. People are:

"considered 'uninsured' if they were not covered by any type of health insurance at any time of the year." (p. 19)

So if you had even a one-day gap, you are thrown in the group of "uninsured."

Further, the Census Bureau says "Research shows health insurance coverage is underreported" in the survey. Thus, the estimates are "more closely approximates the number of people who were uninsured for a specific point in time during the year than the number of people uninsured for the entire year." (p. 19). 

• 27.8% were government programs, up from 27%
• 13.2% were in Medicaid, up from 13.2%
• 17.6% of children in poverty were uninsured--meaning that even among the poor, 82.4% had insurance.
• The highest rate of reported uninsurance was the 18 to 24 year old group, at 28.1%
• Wealth is correlated with insurance: the lowest rate of uninsurance fell among those with a household income of $75,000 or more (7.8%), while the highest rate (24.5%) was for those with the lowest household income bracket, which was $25,000 or below.

Some people can't afford insurance, and we should do what we can to make that affordable to them, as well as to extend charity care. The solution is not, by contrast, to destroy individual freedom (individual mandates) or systematically chip away at the viability of private sector coverage through excessive regulations or expanding government-run programs.

For more on the uninsured, see 47 million ... or not? by Paul Hsieh, as well as John Graham and other posts on this blog.