The U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday, September 10, will release a report showing how many people in the United States lacked health insurance coverage in 2008.
The report is expected to attract a high level of interest as it coincides with the drive in Congress to pass sweeping health care reform legislation to move the nation closer to universal coverage.
The measures would try to do that by providing federal health insurance premium subsidies for the low-income uninsured, among other provisions. The drive to pass health care reform legislation could be bolstered if the Census Bureau report shows a sharp increase in the number of uninsured.
In 2007, both the percentage and number of people lacking health insurance declined. The percentage without health insurance was 15.3 percent in 2007, down from 15.8 percent in 2006; the number of uninsured was 45.7 million, down from 47 million the prior year.
Filed by Jerry Geisel of Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.
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