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 new government report issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) says they’re not so sure that healthcare reform will slow healthcare spending. In fact, the experts are predicting that spending will increase at an average rate of 6.3 percent which is .2 percent more than spending would have grown if Obama’s plan had not become law.

According to ABC News, nearly one in five US dollars spent in 2019 will go towards healthcare costs. While the report predicts added expenditures, it also points to the fact that more people will be covered under the plan. They predict that roughly 93 percent of Americans will have health insurance in 2019, an additional 32.5 million people compared to current data.

The experts behind the report see the main expenditures of implementing the new health care program to be $38 billion spend on establishing new health insurance exchanges and a $31 billion increase in the cost of Medicaid. While they predict higher spending over the next decade, the researchers did not delve into predictions after 2019.

Even though the healthcare bill hasn’t begun yet, some changes have already started which are increasing expenditures. The creation of a temporary high-risk insurance pool and providing coverage to dependents under the age of 26 are two moves adding $10 billion to national health spending through 2013, according to ABC News. “While the impacts are relatively moderate on net spending, the underlying effects on coverage and financing are more pronounced,” Andrea Sikso, an economist with CMS’ Office of the Actuary and lead author of the study told ABC News reporters Wednesday. “When you peel back the onion, and you look past the surface, you start to see much more pronounced impacts,” John Poisal, deputy director of the National Health Statistics Group at CMS’ Office of the Actuary, and one of the authors of the study, told ABC News.

A proposed  health insurance rate hike in New Mexico prompted death threats against top staff at Blue Cross Blue Shield, according to TV station KOB. Extra security was hired to protect high ranking Blue Cross Blue Shield officials at a hearing held this week in Santa Fe. There were also four additional officers provided by the Public Regulation Commission, according to reports.

The hearing was held in response to Blue Cross Blue Shield’s request to regulators to approve a 21.3 percent rate increase on 12 of their insurance plans. The proposed hike would impact thousands of residents in New Mexico, according to KOB. State officials listened to information provided by the Attorney General’s office and Blue Cross Blue Shield about whether or not the hike was justified and necessary.

Towards the end of the hearing the public was allowed to provide their thoughts on the proposed increase. Many argued that it wasn’t necessary when Blue Cross Blue Shield has a reported reserve fund of about $7 billion, according to KOB. But Blue Cross Blue Shield argued that the $7 billion was for emergencies like pandemics and said that higher expenses warranted a rate hike. Company officials say they actually needed a 36 percent increase to break even, but settled on 21.3 percent increase. Officials aren’t expecting any decisions to be made for about a month.

A mansion, Arizona real estate, luxury cars and investments were all paid for by money authorities say a Chicago cardiologist scammed from Medicare, according to a report by the Associated Press. The suburban doctor practicing in Burr Ridge was sentenced to five years in prison for what authorities say amounted to more than $13 million in Medicare reimbursements for care that was never provided.

Authorities say 50-year-old Sushil Sheth pleaded guilty a year ago to one count of health care fraud, and received his sentence this week. He’ll begin serving a five year prison term in two months. The fraud happened between January 2002 and July 2007. In June 2007, the Associated Press says that federal agents seized more than 600 uncashed checks from insurance companies totaling more than $6.7 million.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Sheth “lied thousands of times to Medicare and other insurers in order to receive millions of dollars he did not earn for patients he never treated,” according to a statement released by the  U.S. attorney’s office. According to the Chicago Tribune, Sheth stole patient information from three unnamed hospitals and used it to bill Medicare and other insurance companies for services he never performed and patients he never treated.

Some experts say Medicare may be around a little longer than originally projected. Trustees who oversee Medicare and Social Security are adding another 12 years onto the life of Medicare and they say it’s because of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. But others remain skeptical that the program’s life has really been extended, according to an Associated Press report. The trustees were careful to add that these projections, “do not represent a reasonable expectation” for hospitalizing America’s elderly.

Originally, Medicare was projected to run out of funds in 2017, but the new report says the program will have enough money to be sustained until 2029. Meanwhile, Social Security is expected to run out of funds in 2037. And the trustees also say they’re not enough money to include a cost-of-living increase in next year’s social security checks.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the report showed positive gains, but that much work was left to be done. “We must continue to make progress addressing the financing challenges,” he said according to the Associated Press. “Those reforms require that we achieve very substantial improvements in efficiency and productivity.”

Analysts say that in the future, more of the economy will be taken up by Medicare costs. Right now 3.6 percent of the economy goes to Medicare, but by 2050, experts say that will grow to eight percent, which equates to hundreds of billions of dollars. John Rother, Executive Vice President of the AARP says the affect of Obama’s health care plan won’t be fully known for a while. “The purpose of the law was to slow the growth in health care costs,” Rother said to the AP. “The fact is we really won’t know until some of the regulations get spelled out.”

The recession isn’t helping matters. For the first time since the 1980′s Social Security will hand out more money than it collects. It’s expected to return to a surplus, but then once again have a deficit in 2015. And by 2037 it will only collect enough money to pay out about three-fourths of the benefits that are owed to citizens. “The fact that the costs for the program will likely exceed tax revenue this year is not a cause for panic, but it does send a strong message that it’s time for us to make the tough choices that we know we need to make,” Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue told the Associated Press. Social Security built up a $2.5 trillion surplus, but the government has borrowed that money over the years to fund other programs.

Two studies came to two very different conclusions when it comes to healthcare reform’s impact on jobs. The Center for American Progress released results that showed four million new jobs would be created over the next decade as a direct result of health care reform. On the other side of the spectrum is a study done by the Heritage Foundation, predicting that 690,000 jobs would be eliminated due to health care reform. While the new law’s impact on jobs may be debated, it’s easier to tell how certain professions will be impacted.

For instance, insurance agents are likely to see increased demand since the 32 million Americans currently without insurance will need to purchase some. That rule goes into affect in 2014. Anyone who doesn’t own insurance by then will be forced to pay a $695 fine. On the downside, the reform could mean less money will be left to pay commissions for insurance agents.

As far as doctors are concerned, some will benefit from increased Medicare payments. Many physicians will be eligible for incentive payments equal to 10 percent if they meet certain requirements. However, some argue that those payments are still too low when you factor in the costs of many procedures. Since the healthcare debate remains very heated, it’s hard to determine what the outcome will be. Americans are probably best off researching the facts, and making their own decisions.

Any way to save money on health care costs is worth looking into. Health savings accounts allow you to plan ahead and set aside money that will be spent on health care costs in the coming year.