The number of uninsured adults in the United States continues to rise, with one in four adults under 65 reporting they were without health insurance at some point in the last year, according to a recent report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About 50 million adults said they were uninsured for at least some time. The report is based on a survey conducted between January and March.
Among middle-income adults — those earning two to three times the poverty level, or between $43,000 and $65,000 a year for a family of four — one in three were without insurance for some part of the previous year. Over all, 59.1 million Americans of all ages had no health insurance for at least part of the year before their interview, up from 58.7 million in 2009 and 56.4 million in 2008.
“The data allow us to debunk two myths about health care coverage,” said the C.D.C. director, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden. “The first myth is that only the poor are uninsured. Half of the uninsured are over the poverty level.”
The second myth, he said, is that “it’s only healthy people who are uninsured — that young people are healthy and make a choice not to be insured.” In fact, he said, two of every of five people without insurance during the previous year had at least one chronic condition, like diabetes, hypertension or asthma, and were far more likely than insured people to go without care they needed.
The study was based on a C.D.C. analysis of data from the National Health Interview Survey from 2006 through the first quarter of 2010.
How many are uninsured in all the other developed countries, combined? Zero.
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