The number of people in the United States without health insurance rose from 45.7 million in 2007 to 46.3 million in 2008, which represents 15.4% of the overall population, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today.
The Census Bureau report, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2008, also notes that real median household income in the United States fell 3.6% between 2007 and 2008, from $52,163 to $50,303, breaking a string of three years of annual income increases and coincides with the recession that started in December 2007.
The nation's official poverty rate in 2008 was 13.2%, up from 12.5% in 2007. There were 39.8 million people in poverty in 2008, up from 37.3 million in 2007.
The uninsured rates for the native-born and foreign-born populations were statistically unchanged at 12.9% and 33.5%, respectively, in 2008. Among the foreign-born population, the uninsured rates for both naturalized citizens (18%) and noncitizens (44.7%) were statistically unchanged.
The Northeast and the Midwest, each at 11.6% had lower uninsured rates in 2008 than the West (17.4%) and the South (18.2%), all of which were not statistically different from their respective 2007 rates. The uninsured rate for the West increased to 17.4% in 2008, up from 16.9% in 2007.
A further statistical breakdown of health insurance coverage found that:
- The number of people with health insurance increased from 253.4 million in 2007 to 255.1 million in 2008
- Between 2007 and 2008, the number of people covered by private health insurance decreased from 202 million to 201 million, while the number covered by government health insurance climbed from 83 million to 87.4 million. The number covered by employment-based health insurance declined from 177.4 million to 176.3 million.
- The number of uninsured children declined from 8.1 million (11%) in 2007 to 7.3 million (9.9%) in 2008. Both the uninsured rate and number of uninsured children were the lowest since 1987, the first year that comparable health insurance data were collected.
- Although the uninsured rate for children in poverty declined from 17.6% in 2007 to 15.7% in 2008, children in poverty were more likely to be uninsured than all children.
A further breakdown by race and ethnicity found that:
- The uninsured rate and number of uninsured for non-Hispanic whites increased in 2008 to 10.8% and 21.3 million, from 10.4% and 20.5 million in 2007. The uninsured rate and number of uninsured for blacks in 2008, meanwhile, were not statistically different from 2007, at 19.1% and 7.3 million. The uninsured rate for Asians in 2008 rose to 17.6%, up from 16.8%.
- The percentage of uninsured Hispanics decreased to 30.7% in 2008, from 32.1% in 2007. The number of uninsured Hispanics in 2008 was 14.6 million.
- Based on a three-year average (2006-2008), 31.7% of people who reported American Indian and Alaska Native as their race were without coverage. The three-year average uninsured rate for Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders was 18.5%.