Attention, chocolate lovers: You may not be able to help yourselves. Swiss and British scientists have linked the widespread love of chocolate to a chemical "signature" that may be programmed into our metabolic systems.
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Census: More Americans Are Uninsured
TUESDAY, Aug. 30 (HealthDay News) -- An additional 800,000 people in the United States found themselves without health insurance in 2004, new government figures show. In a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau, 45.8 million people were without medical coverage in 2004, an increase of 859,000 people from the year before. The percentage of uninsured people hovered at 15.7 percent in both 2003 and 2004. Meanwhile, the median household income was unchanged in real terms from 2003, leveling off at $44,389 in 2004. There were also no changes in the most commonly used measures of income and equality, Charles Nelson, assistant division chief for income, poverty and health statistics in the Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division of the U.S. Census Bureau, said during a news conference in Washington, D.C. "This is the second consecutive year that households did not experience an annual change in real median income," Nelson added. At the same time, the nation''s poverty rate rose from 12.5 percent in 2003 to 12.7 percent in 2004. That means 1.1 million more people were living in poverty in 2004, for a total of 37 million. The poverty rate for children remained unchanged at 17.8 percent. According to the Current Population Survey (CPS), the actual number of people with health insurance rose by 2 million, to 245.3 million (84.3 percent of the population), between 2003 and 2004. But this increase was counterbalanced by an increase in the number without coverage: 45 million in 2003 to 45.8 million in 2004. The percentage of people covered by employer-based health insurance declined from 60.4 percent in 2003, to 59.8 percent in 2004. At the same time, the percentage of people covered by government programs such as Medicaid rose, from 26.6 percent to 27.2 percent during the same time period. "This stabilization in overall coverage rate can be explained by increases in government coverage that offset the decline in employer-based coverage," Nelson said. That apparent stabilization did not quell criticism from activists. "Congress should immediately rededicate itself to helping all Americans access affordable health coverage in light of today''s numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau," Consumers Union said in a prepared statement. "The census numbers tell us what we''ve known for years -- that soaring health care inflation is making health insurance unaffordable, so more folks go uninsured, and those who can afford it find their policies cover less and less," Bill Vaughan, a senior health policy analyst with Consumers Union, added. "The data shows a continued deterioration in the use of employer-provided health insurance and increased reliance on Medicaid and public programs. If it had not been for more people moving into public programs, the number of uninsured would have increased another 2.3 million, the statistics show." Not surprisingly, children in poverty were more likely to be uninsured than children overall. In 2004, 18.9 percent of children in poverty lacked health insurance while only 11.2 percent of children overall went without coverage. The 2004 uninsured rate for non-Hispanic whites (11.3 percent) and blacks (19.7 percent) were both unchanged from 2003. The uninsured rate for Asians decreased, from 18.8 percent to 16.8 percent. The percentage of Hispanics of any race who lacked health insurance was 32.7 percent in both 2003 and 2004. The actual number increased from 13.2 million in 2003 to 13.7 million a year later. "For Latinos, no change is not good at all, given that about one-third of Latinos are uninsured," said Eric Rodriguez, director of the policy analysis center at the National Council of LaRaza, a non-profit Hispanic advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. "This comes in the midst of lots of conversations about cutting Medicaid and other programs in the federal budget. We''re very concerned that we may be moving in the wrong direction. This is a definite call to action." In regional terms, the Midwest had the lowest rate of uninsured people in 2004 (11.9 percent), followed by the Northeast (13.2 percent), the West (17.4 percent) and the South (18.3 percent). More information Visit the U.S. Census Bureau to see the full report.
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