Increase in Number of Americans Without Health Insurance

New figures from the US Centre for Disease Control have revealed that the number of Americans without health insurance increased in 2009. Despite the passage of federal health care legislation making medical insurance mandatory in the US towards the end of 2009, the number of Americans without health insurance policies rose from 43.8 million to 46.3 million. The increase represented an additional 0.7 per cent of Americans without health insurance policies, said the Centre’s National Centre for Health Statistics.

Of those without insurance against the costs of health treatment, more than 6 million were children under the age of 18. Young adults were among the least likely to have insurance, with nearly 30 per cent of those aged between 18 and 24 lacking insurance, compared with 21 per cent of those aged between 18 and 64, and 17.5 per cent of those aged under 65. A Reuters report expects that the new healthcare laws will extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans by the time it is fully implemented in 2014.

Despite the increase, the number of people under the age of 65 without private medical insurance actually fell, from 65.4 million to 62.9 million – figures which demonstrate the broad presence of non-private health insurance policies in the US.