CDC survey shows 3 million more uninsured in 2009

Reuters: The number of uninsured Americans increased slightly last year, compared with 2008, but the change was not statistically significant according to a just-released Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey. "The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics said in its report that 15.4 percent of Americans lacked health insurance in 2009, compared to 14.7 percent in 2008." The number of uninsured, 46.3 million last year, increased by less than 3 million compared to the prior year. Six million children remain uninsured (Fox, 6/16).

HealthDay/MSNBC: "This means one in five working-age adults is uninsured, and the situation is still worse in some states: nearly one in four Texans, for example, lack any form of health coverage. … As a result, millions of Americans face an uphill battle getting the health care they need, according to the CDC." Excluding children and the elderly, who have greater access to public insurance programs, 21.1 percent of adults were uninsured in 2009. And, "a whopping 58.5 percent of American adults went without insurance for at least part of the year" (Reinberg, 6/16).

---

This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.