Tuesday, September 30, 2003

Numbers of Americans With and Without Health Insurance Rise, Census Bureau Reports
Census Bureau press release - "The number of people with health insurance rose by 1.5 million between 2001 and 2002, to 242.4 million, and the number of uninsured rose by 2.4 million, to 43.6 million, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. An estimated 15.2 percent of the population had no health insurance coverage during all of 2002, up from 14.6 percent in 2001..." The full report, Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2002, is available in Adobe Acrobat format. See also the overview of the report and reaction to it at the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report. Related news stories include Census Finds Many More Lack Health Insurance (Washington Post), Big Increase Seen in People Lacking Health Insurance (New York Times, registration required),  and Number of nation's uninsured up sharply (Philadelphia Inquirer).