The Numbers Don’t Lie

by   |  August 30, 2007

Naysayers may want to look the other way, but reality speaks for itself. According to the latest Census Bureau report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage, the number of Americans without health insurance rose last year from 44.5 million to 47 million. That’s almost 16 percent of Americans who simply can’t get sick enough to require a doctor visit… because they can’t afford it. And what about children? More than 600,000 of them joined the ranks of the uninsured in 2006. They have now reached 8.7 million. At a time when Pres. Bush threatens to veto reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, this is particularly dire news. Meanwhile, the official poverty rate decreased slightly from 12.6 percent in 2005 to 12.3 percent last year. Nonetheless, that’s still nearly 37 million Americans living in poverty or 5 million more than when Pres. Bush moved into the White House. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) said it best: “While the poverty rate is down slightly, millions of Americans feel the American Dream is getting further out of reach. Today’s Census data confirms these fears. Americans are working harder but living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to make ends meet and going deeper into debt because of the high cost of health care, energy, and education.”