Barrapunto

The U.S. spends twice as much as other industrialized nations on health care, $7,129 per capita. Yet our system performs poorly in comparison and still leaves 46 million without health coverage and millions more inadequately covered.

The Census Bureau estimates that 44.3 million people in the United States, or 16.3% of the population, had no health insurance in 1998 -- an increase of about 1 million people since 1997. Those most likely to lack health insurance continue to include young adults in the 18-to-24-year-old age group, people with lower levels of education, people of Hispanic origin, those who work part-time, and the foreign born.