America’s Lack of Health Insurance

Here are more statistics about those lacking Insurance and its effects.

Did You Know…

• …that the most recent government data available shows that 16% of the United States—almost 47 million Americans—were without health insurance in 2005?¹
• …the number of people lacking health insurance has increased by almost 9 million people since 2000, rising by 2.2 million between 2005 and 2006?¹
• …80% of the uninsured are native or naturalized citizens?²
• …in 2006 the increase in people was focused among working age adults? The percentage of working adults, ages 18-64, without health coverage climbed from 19.7% in 2005 to 20.2% in 2006.¹
• …nearly 1.3 million full-time workers lost their health insurance coverage in 2006?⁷
• …that in 2006 or 2007 one-third of the population below the age of 65–about 90 million people — spent a portion of either 2006 or 2007 without any health insurance?³
• …over 8 in 10 uninsured people come from working families? 70% are from families with one or more full-time workers; 11 %are from families with part-time workers?²
• …that those with employment-based health insurance (workers and dependents) has dropped from 70 percent in 1987 to 59 percent in 2006? This is the lowest level of employment-based insurance coverage in more than a decade.^{4, 5}
• …nearly 15 percent of employees had no employer-sponsored health coverage available to them (either through their own job or through a family member) in 2005?⁶
• …37.7 million workers were uninsured in 2006, because not all businesses offer health benefits? Also, not all workers qualify for coverage and many employees cannot afford their share of the health insurance premium even when coverage is offered and available.¹
• …that uninsured children in 2006 numbered 8.7 million (11.7 percent of all children in the U.S.)?1
• …that the number of uninsured children increased by nearly 610,000 in 2006, making it the second year that the number of uninsured children increased?¹
• …young adults, ages 18 to 24 years old, remained the least likely of any age group to have health insurance? 29.3% of this group did not have health insurance in 2005?¹
• …that the number of Hispanics without insurance increased to 34.1% in 2006, or 15.3 million people?¹
• …that people residing in households with the income of $50,000 or more was nearly 40 percent of the uninsured population?¹
• …that even when coverage is offered by their employers, an increasing number of middle-income families cannot afford health insurance payments?¹

1. DeNavas-Walt, C.B. Proctor, and J. Smith. Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006. U.S. Census Bureau., August 2007. http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/p60-233.pdf
2. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. The Uninsured: A Primer, Key Facts About Americans without Health Insurance. October 2006. http://www.kff.org/uninsured/
3. Families USA. Wrong Direction: One Out of Three Americans are Uninsured. September 2007. http://familiesusa.org/assets/pdfs/wrong-direction.pdf
4. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Employee Health Benefits: 2007 Annual Survey. 11 September 2006. http://www.kff.org/insurance/7672/index.cfm
5. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Number of Uninsured Americans is at an All-Time High. 29 August 2006 http://www.cbpp.org/8-29-06health.pdf6.
6. Clemens-Cope, Lisa, et al, Changes in Employees’ Health Insurance Coverage, 2001-2005, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, October 2006.
7. Health Insurance Coverage, http://www.nchc.org/facts/coverage.shtml.