U.S. CENSUS BUREAU REPORT: HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE 2002
(Published September 30, 2003)

* An estimated 15.2 percent of the population (43.6 million) were without health insurance coverage during the entire year in 2002, up from 14.6 percent in 2001, an increase of 2.4 million people.

* Middle-income households accounted for most of the increase in the number of uninsured. In households with annual incomes of $25,000 to $74,999, the number of uninsured rose last year by 1.4 million, to 21.5 million, and the increase was most noticeable among households with incomes of $25,000 to $49,999.

* The number and percentage of people covered by employment-based health insurance dropped in 2002, from 62.6 percent to 61.3 percent, driving the overall decrease in health insurance coverage.

* The number and percentage of people covered by government health insurance programs rose in 2002, from 25.3 percent to 25.7 percent, largely from an increase in the number and percentage of people covered by Medicaid (from 11.2 percent to 11.6 percent).

* Forty-nine percent of the uninsured living in poverty worked full-time.  Although Medicaid insured 14.0 million people in poverty, 10.5 million additional people in poverty had no health insurance in 2002.

* There were 8.5 million uninsured children, 11.6 percent of all children, in 2002 unchanged).

* 1 in 3 Hispanics are uninsured. 1 in 5 Blacks and Asians are uninsured. 1 in 10 Whites are uninsured.

* The proportion who had employment-based policies in their own name decreased from 56.3 percent to 55.2 percent from 2001 to 2002.

* Young adults (18 to 24 years old) in 2002 were less likely than other age groups to have health insurance coverage -- 70.4 percent, compared with 82.3 percent of those 25 to 64 and 99.2 percent of those 65 and over (reflecting widespread Medicare coverage).

http://www.census.gov/hhes/hlthins/hlthin02/hlth02asc.html