According to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Thursday, one out of six people in the United States below the age of 65 did not have health insurance cover in 2005 while 1 in 3 Hispanics were uninsured. The latest report has some of the most detailed estimates of health insurance figures in a state and race wise break up.  

Rea Panares of the health care advocacy group Families USA said, "This is not an issue of people not working, it is an issue of working families not being about to afford coverage. We are seeing that about 80% of people who are uninsured have a full time worker in the family."

The break up by race data showed that Hispanics were the least likely to have health insurance when compared to African Americans and whites. In the state wise break up Texas led the way with the highest number of uninsured residents under the age of 65 years at 26.3 %. New Mexico came in second with 24.2 % and Florida third with 24.0 %.

Minnesota was the best with the lowest uninsured rate of 9.5 % followed by Hawaii with 9.7 %, Wisconsin with 10.3 % and Iowa with 10.4%. Although nearly 18 percent of Coloradans lack health insurance, the number is significantly higher in some areas of the state. Here again Hispanics were more likely to be uninsured at 35.3% as compared to blacks at 19.4 % and whites at 12.4 % in the state.

Florida’s uninsured population has continued to grow this decade. Paul Duncan, chairman of the Health Services Research, Management and Policy department at University of Florida said, "It's clear that the number of uninsured people is going up steadily."

Lucy Dalzell of the Census bureau told WebMD that it was not clear from these figures if the number of uninsured Americans rose or fell from previous years; though a separate Census bureau report using 2007 census figures indicated slight increases in health insurance coverage rates among whites, children, and Hispanics. Alwyn Cassil of the Center for Studying Health Care System Change said this small rise could be explained by more people being covered by public programs like the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). "A lot of attention has been focused on narrowing racial and ethnic disparities in health, but when you look at the health insurance coverage rates it is clear that not much has changed," she said. Keeping the economic conditions in mind the number of uninsured is likely to increase unless public coverage expands.