Number of uninsured in U.S. rises, Census Bureau announces

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The number of people without health insurance in the United States increased slightly to 46.3 million in 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau said Thursday.

There were 45.7 million uninsured people in the country a year earlier, and 47 million without health insurance in 2006, according to Census Bureau figures.

The Census Bureau counts as "insured" a person who had health insurance at any time during the year, so people who lost their jobs in 2008 - and their health insurance with them - do not count as "uninsured."

The campaign group Families USA said that meant the Census Bureau "substantially underestimated" the true number of uninsured people.

With the rise in unemployment, "the number of uninsured today is probably close to 50 million," said Ron Pollack, the executive director of Families USA, which says it "advocates for high-quality, affordable health coverage for everyone."

While the total number of people without health insurance rose, the number of uninsured children fell to 7.3 million - the lowest number of children without health insurance since 1987, said David Johnson, chief of the Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division of the Census Bureau.