Nearly 50 million Americans are without health insurance

In the first full calendar year after the recession that ended in June 2009, the U.S. Census Bureau has reported that there are more uninsured citizens and more under the poverty line.

In its key findings of income, poverty and health insurance coverage in the United States for 2010, the Bureau found that the official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent, up from 14.3 percent in 2009. This is the fourth consecutive annual increase and the largest number – at 46.2 million people in poverty – in the 52 years that poverty estimates have been published. The poverty rate increased for children younger than 18 (from 20.7 percent in 2009 to 22.0 percent in 2010) and people 18 to 64 (from 12.9 percent in 2009 to 13.7 percent in 2010), while it was not statistically different for people 65 and older (9.0 percent).

The number of people without health insurance coverage rose from 49.0 million in 2009 to 49.9 million in 2010, though the percentage without coverage −16.3 percent – was not statistically different from the rate in 2009. The latest report also found that between 2009 and 2010, the percentage of people covered by private health insurance declined from 64.5 percent to 64.0 percent, while the percentage covered by government health insurance increased from 30.6 percent to 31.0 percent. The percentage covered by employment-based health insurance declined from 56.1 percent to 55.3 percent. In 2010, 9.8 percent of children under 18 (7.3 million) were without health insurance. Neither estimate is significantly different from the corresponding 2009 estimate. The uninsured rate for children in poverty (15.4 percent) was greater than the rate for all children (9.8 percent).

The U.S. Census Bureau released the following table on the demographics of the uninsured:

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