Despite a rise in the total number of people with health insurance, the percentage of Americans with coverage declined in 2003, a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau finds.

According to the report, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2003, the number of people with health insurance rose by approximately one million, from 242.4 million in 2002 to 243.3 million in 2003, while the number without such coverage rose by 1.4 million, to 45 million. As a result, coverage as a percentage of the overall population dropped, from 84.8 percent to 84.4 percent, mirroring a drop in the percentage of people covered by employment-based health insurance.

The report also found that the proportion of uninsured children remained at 11.4 percent, or 8.4 million, in 2003, while the percentage of people covered by government health insurance programs rose, from 25.7 percent to 26.6 percent, largely as the result of increases in Medicaid and Medicare coverage. The former rose 0.7 percentage points, to 12.4 percent of the population, while the latter increased 0.2 percentage points, to 13.7 percent.

"Every man, woman, and child in America must have stable and affordable healthcare coverage," said Robert Wood Johnson Foundation president Risa Lavizzo-Mourey. "Unfortunately, the figures released today by the U.S. Census Bureau demonstrate that we are further from this goal than we have been in many years. The number of Americans without health insurance increased by 1.4 million in 2003. We can and must do better when it comes to covering all Americans."

To read or download a copy of the complete report (77 pages, PDF), visit: http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/p60-226.pdf.