On the heels of President Obama's remarks to a joint session of Congress about his plans to overhaul the health care system, the U.S. Census Bureau released the latest figures on the number of uninsured Americans.
The number of uninsured Americans increased in 2008 to 46.3 million versus 45.7 million in 2007. The U.S. poverty rate climbed, increasing from 12.5 percent in 2007 to 13.2 percent in 2008. This was the largest annual poverty rate increase since 2004.
The U.S. Census Bureau – covering a full year of the current recession – released these figures Thursday in its annual report, "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2008."
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U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke told the Wall Street Journal Thursday, "The numbers underscore two important points: One, there is an urgent need to pass health insurance reform to drive down costs for hard-pressed American families. And two, the Recovery Act was crucial for preventing a struggling economy from falling into depression."
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