The percentage of U.S. residents without health insurance is the highest since 1998, when 16.4% of the population was uninsured, but the number of uninsured residents last year reached its all-time highest total because of population growth.

The number of insured U.S. residents increased by one million to 243.3 million people because of population increases, according to the Census Bureau.

More Findings

The report, which also detailed national poverty rates, includes the following findings:

-- The percentage of people with employer-based health insurance fell to 60.4% in 2003 from 61.3% in 2002.

-- The number of full-time workers with insurance decreased by 725,000 between 2002 and 2003 (Appleby, USA Today, 8/27).

-- The percentage of uninsured people who were working increased from 19.5% in 2002 to 20.2% last year (Lueck/McKinnon, Wall Street Journal, 8/27).

-- In 2003, 26.6% of the population received some form of government health insurance coverage -- the highest percentage since 1995 (Connolly/Witte, Washington Post, 8/27).

-- The proportion of Medicaid beneficiaries increased to 12.4% of the population, from 11.6% (Wall Street Journal, 8/27).

-- The proportion of children who were uninsured in 2003 remained steady at 11.4% (Snowbeck, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8/27).

-- Much of the increase in the overall uninsured population was among white adults in the South (Washington Post, 8/27).

-- In 2003, 32.7% of Hispanics were uninsured, compared with 11.1% of non-Hispanic whites, 19.4% of African Americans and 18.6% of Asians (USA Today graphic, 8/27).

-- California, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas were the four states with the highest percentage of uninsured residents in 2003 (Martelle, Los Angeles Times, 8/27).