lution, but a solution is desperately needed.
Most Americans get their health care coverage through their employers, but in the present economic situation, not only is employment no longer something which can be relied upon, but health insurance coverage by an employer is not guaranteed either (NCHC-Coverage, 2004). America is moving from a manufacturing-based to a service-based economy as most manufacturing jobs are being shipped overseas, and with increasing reliance on part-time workers, fewer workers have access to employer-sponsored health insurance. Because of steeply rising insurance premiums, many small business employers simply cannot afford to offer health insurance benefits to employees. Larger companies which do still offer employees health insurance benefits are asking employees to contribute a larger share of the costs. The result is that many Americans have dropped out of these plans because they simply cannot afford them, and they cannot afford private coverage either, so are swelling the ranks of Americans with absolutely no health insurance coverage.
Currently, approximately 45 million, or 15.6 percent of the population of the United States are without health insurance coverage (NCHC-Coverage, 2004). This figure could rise to between 51.2 million and 53.7 million by 2006. Between 2002 and 2003, the number of people with health insurance fell by 1.3 million, and the number of people covered by government insurance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid rose by 3.2 million. The number of children in the United States without medical insurance in 2003 was 11.4 percent - 8.4 million. Medicaid, a program for the poor, insured 13.3 million people, but 10.1 million poor people had no medical insurance in 2001, representing 30.7 percent of the poor. Young adults aged from 18 to 24 years of age were the most unlikely to have health insurance in 2001, with more than 28 percent of this group having no coverage. ...