SAN FRANCISCO — Even though the number of Americans living in poverty leveled off last year, the number of those without health insurance rose to more than 46 million in 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau said Tuesday. Because of population growth, both the number of people without health insurance and the number of those with coverage grew between 2004 and 2005. The number of Americans without health insurance for those full 12 months rose by 1.3 million to 46.6 million, according to the survey of 100,000 households. The percentage of people without it increased to 15.9% last year from 15.6% in 2004. At the same time, the number who had coverage for the entire year increased by 1.4 million to 247.3 million in 2005. But the rise wasn’t enough to keep the percentage with insurance from falling to 84.1% from 84.4% during that period. The nation’s population expanded to 293.8 million last year from 291.2 million in 2004, according to Census estimates. Of particular concern is the continued erosion of employer-sponsored insurance and an uptick in the number of uninsured children, some health-care analysts said. The portion of Americans covered by job-based coverage slipped to 59.5% from […]

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