Small Drop in Americans Without Health Coverage

According to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau, there has been a slight decrease in the number of Americans who do not have health insurance.

Overall, 45.7 million people, or 15.3 percent of U.S. residents, were not covered in 2007, the bureau said in unveiling its reports on poverty, income and insurance. That represents a drop from the 2006 level of 47 million, or 15.8 percent.

The percentages of people covered by private health insurance along with employment-based health insurance both dipped slightly in 2007, the Census numbers showed, although the number of those covered by employment-based insurance, 177.4 million, did not statistically change from 2006.

The percentage of people, including children, covered by government health insurance programs grew to 27.8 percent in 2007 from 27 percent the previous year. The number of children under 18 without health insurance slid to 11 percent, or 8.1 million -- lower than the previous year's numbers of 11.1 percent and 8.7 million.

Using a three-year average from 2005-2007, Texas had the largest percentage of uninsured, with 24.4 percent, according to the bureau.

With 8.3 percent, Massachusetts and Hawaii had the smallest estimates for uninsured rates, but the two were not statistically different from Minnesota (8.5 percent), Wisconsin (8.8 percent) and Iowa (9.4 percent). Hawaii also was not different statistically from Maine (9.5 percent).