U.S. lowers number its says have no health insurance
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government said on Friday it has overstated by almost 2 million people the number of Americans who have no health insurance, lowering the figure to 44.8 million.
The revised figure provided by the U.S. Census Bureau for 2005, the most recent year for which statistics were available, was lower than the 46.6 million it reported in August. The new figure for the uninsured represents 15.3 percent of the U.S. population of about 300 million.
The growing number of Americans without medical coverage and the rising cost of health care have become potent political issues in the United States as the 2008 presidential election approaches and the statistics on the uninsured are frequently cited.
The Census Bureau said it discovered, when tallying answers in an annual survey, that it had mistakenly counted as uninsured some people who reported having medical coverage.
The agency said it found the mistake last fall when changing a computer system used to process the survey results. It said similar mistakes have been occurring since 1995.
"The impact (of the error) on health insurance trends is small," Census Bureau spokesman Neil Tillman said by e-mail.
"The error had about the same effect on the data year after year, so the effect of the revision is constant from one year to the next. We expect the direction and magnitude of change to be consistent over the years," Tillman added.
The Bush administration in January unveiled a proposal for tax changes, including tax hikes on about 30 million Americans, as part of a plan to expand health insurance coverage.
A variety of other proposals are circulating in Congress, some envisioning universal health coverage and others focusing on ensuring that all children get health insurance.
The Census Bureau also released revised figures for 2004, lowering the number of uninsured that year by a similar amount to 43.5 million. It said it will issue in August revised figures on uninsured Americans for 1995 through 2003 when it releases 2006 numbers.
