For the first time in decades, the number of people with health insurance has dropped, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The agency has just released statistics on poverty and health insurance coverage for Americans in 2009. According to the summary of key findings in the research, the number of people with health insurance has decreased from 255.1 million in 2008 to 253.6 million in 2009. The Census Bureau says this is the first year since 1987 that the number of persons with health insurance has decreased.

While the real median household income in the United States in 2009 was $49,777, which is not statistically different from the 2008 median, the poverty rate rose to 14.3 in 2009 from 13.2 in 2008, and the number of persons without health insurance coverage rose from 46.3 million in 2008 to 50.7 million in 2009. Specifics on the 2009 health insurance statistics include:

--The number of people covered by government health insurance rose from 87.4 million to 93.2 million;

--The number of people covered by employment-based health insurance declined from 176.3 million to 169.7 million;

--The number of people with Medicaid coverage increased from 42.6 million to 47.8 million;

-- Ten percent of children under 18 were without health insurance and the uninsured rate for children in poverty (15.1 percent) was greater than the rate for all children.

The rates of uninsured persons decreased in 2009 as yearly income increased: households with annual incomes less than $25,000 had 26.6 percent uninsured; those with incomes of $75,000 yearly had only 9.1 percent uninsured.

More about the Census Bureau information can be found here: http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/income_wealth/cb10-144.html

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