Health Insurance U.S Number Plans Americans Uninsured People

In the United States, medical care is very expensive, so it is important to have health insurance. However, according to the "Census Bureau" (the U.S. government agency that keeps data or information about the number of Americans and their characteristics), in 2005 there were 46.6 million "uninsured Americans," meaning U.S. citizens who don't have health insurance. This was 15.9% of all U.S. citizens, and that number is growing.

The "main" (most important) reason for the high number of uninsured Americans is that health insurance is very expensive. Normally the employer pays all or some of the costs for the health insurance plan, but the "premiums" (the amount of money paid each year to have a health insurance plan) are increasing and employers cannot "afford" (to be able to pay) to pay the premiums anymore. When this happens, the employers ask the "employees" (the workers) to pay a larger percentage of the premiums, or they don't offer health insurance plans at all.

Another reason that the number of uninsured Americans is growing is that there have been many changes in state and federal health insurance programs. Two government insurance plans that help people who can't afford healthcare - "Medicaid" and the "State Children's Health Insurance Program" - recently changed their rules about who is "eligible" (able to apply) for coverage. When these rules changed, some people lost their health insurance and weren't able to afford an individual health insurance plan.

Many people are very worried about the growing number of uninsured Americans and have "proposed" (to present a new idea for doing something) creating a public health care plan that would be free for all U.S. citizens. However, others believe that this plan is too expensive and it is not likely that the U.S. will have "universal healthcare" (healthcare for everyone) in the near future.