Nearly 50 million people in the United States lacked health insurance in 2010, up almost a million from the year before, according to statistics released by the Census Bureau on Sept. 13.
While the number of people without insurance rose to 49.9 million in 2010 from 49.0 million the year before, there was no statistically significant change in the uninsurance rate, which was 16.3% in 2010.
A similar trend was seen among children: 9.8% of children (7.3 million) were uninsured in 2010, a rate not significantly different from the rate of 9.7% in 2009.
Other age groups did experience significant changes. Among those aged 65 years and older, the uninsurance rate in 2010 increased to 2.0%, up from 1.7% in 2009. During a press briefing, Census Bureau officials said they could not offer an explanation for the increase in this age group, which traditionally has very low uninsurance rates because of Medicare coverage. The uninsurance rate also rose among people aged 35-64 years.
However, more young adults aged 18-24 years became insured in 2010. The uninsurance rate for that group dropped to 27.2% in 2010 from 29.3% the year before. A provision of the Affordable Care Act that allows parents to keep children on their health insurance policy up to age 26 could be a factor in the increase in coverage in this age group, Brett O’Hara, Ph.D., chief of the Health and Disability Statistics Branch at the Census Bureau, said during a press briefing.
The report also showed that once again, private insurance coverage in the United States is declining while public coverage is increasing. Employment-based insurance dropped to 55.3% in 2010 from 56.1% in 2009. The number of people who received their health insurance through their employer fell from 170.8 million to 169.3 million.
At the same time, the number of people covered by government-sponsored health insurance increased by nearly 2 million, bringing the total number to 95 million in 2010.