The number of people without health insurance dropped last year to 45.7 million, from 47 million in 2006, according to the bureau's annual report on income, poverty and health insurance. It said 15.3 percent of Americans had no public or private health insurance in 2007, down from 15.8 percent in 2006.
Overall, the number of people covered by government programs rose to 83 million in 2007, up from 80.3 million in 2006. The number of people on Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income residents, increased to 39.6 million from 38.3 million. And the number of children without insurance dropped to 8.1 million from 8.7 million as the number of children with public insurance rose by almost 1 million to 23 million, the report said.
By contrast, the rate of private health insurance coverage slid to 67.5 percent of U.S. residents in 2007, down from 67.9 percent a year earlier while the total number of people with private coverage was statistically unchanged at 202 million.
At the same time, employer-sponsored health insurance shrank to the lowest level since 1993. Family incomes rose, the bureau also reported in its broad look at the economic status of U.S. households.
The overall poverty rate was unchanged, while the number of poor children increased, the government report said.
