Congressional Quarterly reported a Familes USA analysis of the Census Bureau information on the uninsured for 2006-2007. Are they who you thought?

Four out of five of the uninsured were from working families, with 70.6 percent employed full time and 8.7 percent employed part-time. Of the total 89.6 million uninsured, 64.2 million were between 18 and 64 and more than a third were ages 25 to 44, the age group that makes up the largest percentage of the uninsured.

The numbers fly in the face of the rhetoric of personal responsibility and opportunity that's so often whipped out to argue against social spending. Most uninsured Americans are working -- and they're working fulltime. Health insurance isn't affordable. A few isolated plans, like Tonik, make it more affordable for young adults -- but they're not commonly offered. (Only 8 states.)

In the Families USA analysis, young adults are clearly disproportionately affected -- but the disaggregation for younger folks is 25-44. Other studies, such as that by the Commonwealth Fund in August 2007, break the numbers down to focus on adults 18-29. The conclusions? It's a huge and growing problem. They find 13.3 million young adults were uninsured in 2005, up from 12.9 million in 2004.

Going back further, a Kaiser Foundation report in 2004 showed that one in three young adults (18-29) were uninsured as opposed to one in six older Americans at that time. Young adults 19-24 were less likely to be insured -- 34.9 percent were not -- than young adults 24-29 -- 30.6 percent. 

Commonwealth found that 60 percent of uninsured young adults (19-29)
have forgone health care as a result of their insurance situation. In one amazing NYT Magazine article, read the stories of the young and uninsured, trying to avoid the exorbitant costs of urgent health care despite excruciating and dangerous conditions and accidents. There's the young woman with tuberculosis, a man with a spinal fusion, and a young man whose appendix nearly ruptured. (Exposition on the quality of care received by the uninsured can wait for a second blog post, no doubt soon to come.)