Fewer US Kids Lack Health Insurance

From Bloomberg News
June 22, 2006

About 6.5 million American children lacked health insurance in 2005, about a third fewer than eight years earlier as states provided more coverage for the needy, the U.S. government estimated.

Still, about 41.2 million Americans, including about 1 in every 10 under age 18, had no health insurance last year, researchers for the Hyattsville, Md.-based National Center for Health Statistics said.

Although the uninsured made up about 14.2% of the U.S. population, only 8.9% of people under age 18 lacked coverage, the researchers wrote.