The new numbers will certainly add fuel to the debate over the State Children's Health Insurance Program, especially with the Census Bureau showing that the number of children without health insurance increased by 700,000 -- all attributable to a drop in private coverage.

There is much information in the new report, and we could argue about the questionable quality of the data, about the fact that nearly half of the uninsured are without coverage for four months or less, about the increasing number of higher-income people without insurance, and the large number of illegal immigrants who contribute to the rise.

But the fact is that trends are important in policy and political debates, and they reflect a growing insecurity about health insurance across the country. As a result, health care and the uninsured will continue to be a focus of the debate this fall and in the 2008 elections.

The most noticeable drop in insurance coverage overall was among those with job-based insurance, down to 59.7 percent. As we argue over and over, the policy of tying health insurance to the workplace isn't working for millions of Americans in a mobile, 21st century economy. We need new incentives for people to get health insurance that is portable from job to job and that allows them to make choices among plans that offer more affordable coverage.

Julie Rovner of National Public Radio captured the spirit of the uninsured debate in this segment for Morning Edition. In it, I argue that the real question facing the American people isn't whether we are going to expand access to health insurance, but how we are going to do it -- through expansion of government programs like SCHIP or by providing new incentives for people to get portable, private insurance.

Another figure of some concern in the Census report is the decline in the number of people with private, non-employer health insurance. In 1994, more than 31 million people bought private health insurance for themselves or their families. In 2006, that number had fallen to 27 million, even as the county's population grew by 35 million over that time. Clearly, this market needs to be revitalized.