Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:44:2
David Goodhue - AHN Reporter
Washington, DC (AHN) - The number of Americans with no health insurance has increased by almost 3 million people from 1997 to 2008, according to a recent federal study. The study found that about 15 percent of all Americans, or about 44 million people of all ages, have no health coverage.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, "Health Insurance Coverage: Early Release of Estimated from the National Health Interview Survey, 2008," was conducted to gauge the latest health insurance estimates in the country.
Among other findings, it showed Massachusetts has the lowest percentage of uninsured people under the age of 65 - 3.4 percent. On the other end of the spectrum, about 25 percent of the under-65 populations of Florida and Texas, and 1 in 5 in Arizona, California and Georgia lack insurance. Nationally, about 16.7 percent of people under 65 don't have health coverage, according to the CDC.
About 80 percent of the insured population in Massachusetts under 65 have private coverage and in Florida, the rate is about 56.2 percent. The national rate of private health insurance coverage is about 65.4 percent for people under 65.
The report shows that the number of uninsured children has decreased significantly - almost 14 percent to 8.9 percent - from 1997 to 2008. More than 34 percent of the nation's children have public health coverage.
The CDC also released a second report on health insurance that examined coverage trends from 1959 to 2007. Among its chief findings was that the number of people under 65 with no coverage has increased by more than 20 percent since its lowest point in 1978.
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