New data released by the Census Bureau shows that there has been a record increase in the number of people without health insurance. Nearly one in six US residents, or about 50 million people, were uninsured in 2009, according to the report. Previously the number of uninsured Americans was at 46.3 million and authorities say the reasons for the jump include job loss, companies axing health care benefits, and families cutting costs.

Another reason could be that it costs more. Statistics show that workers pay 47% more to keep their families insured than they did in 2005. “Eventually, more people will be covered if everything goes the way it should starting in 2014,” Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health, which represents large employers, told USA Today. “But that’s four years away, and there’s going to be a lot of financial pain and economic burden before 2014.” In 2014, the newly passed health care bill will take effect and some say this report will increase support of that move.  “If ever one needed an affirmation about how essential the Affordable Care Act is, this is that affirmation,” Ron Pollack, executive director of the health consumers group Families USA, told USA Today. “The clear message for people now is that help will be on the way.”

Healthcare reform may have won the votes it needed in Congress, but it has yet to win the support of public opinion. The latest poll conducted by USA Today/Gallup found that 56% of people disapprove of the new law. “The White House and its allies won the legislative debate. They lost the debate in the court of public opinion,” Robert Moffit, director of the Center for Health Policy Studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told USA Today.

This increase in uninsured Americans isn’t a complete surprise since layoffs have soared. Some of the findings of the report include:

* Those in low-income households are three times more likely to be uninsured than those with an income over $75,000.

* Among race groups, Asian households had the highest median income in 2009.

* In 2009, households in the West and Northeast had the highest median household incomes.

* The Northeast had the lowest uninsured rate in 2009.

A study by the American Journal of Public Health found that larger health, disability and long term care insurance providers are investing big bucks into fast food chains including McDonald’s and Pizza Hut. The investments reached nearly $2 billion dollars according to Dr. Wesley Boyd, an author of the study and clinical professor at Harvard Medical School. According to the study:

• Northwestern Mutual owns $422.2 million in fast food stocks, with most invested in McDonald’s.
• Massachusetts Mutual owns $366.5 million worth of fast food stock with all but $100 million in McDonald’s.
• ING holds $406.1 million in fast food stocks, more than 75 percent of which is in McDonald’s.
• Life and long-term disability insurance company Prudential Financial has $355.5 million in fast food holdings including large portions of Burger King, Jack-in-the-Box and McDonald’s.

Boyd feels that the study shows a need for insurance companies to be held to a higher standard. “The insurance industry, so far as it seeks to make a profit, it does so in an amoral way,” Boyd said in a CBS News report. “In order to generate profits, they will invest in any area they need to … to make money, even if what they invest in, in this case fast food, is an industry that is known to cause people to get sick and to die early.” According to CNN, the authors of the report feel that perhaps the insurance company should use their power to force fast food companies into creating more healthy options.

CNN contacted several of the insurance companies about the study’s findings. One email response from Massachusetts Mutual spokesperson Mark Cybulski called the findings “absolutely incorrect.” Cybulski told CNN that as of the end of 2009 the company held less than $1.4 million in fast food stock which equals less than one-hundredth of a percent of the company’s cash and assets.

Another source told CNN that if the study is true, the insurance company may profit from investing in companies like fast food and tobacco which contribute greatly to mortality rates. “They are essentially killing off their consumer base, so it’s not a sustainable model in the long-term,” Sara N. Bleich, Ph.D., an assistant professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health told CNN. “Long-term goals should be consistent with health, because that ensures a large population from which to draw consumers.”