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.

Employers are still the main source for insurance coverage for most Americans, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Nearly 70 percent of employers offer health coverage which is an increase of about 10 percent compared to last year. That sounds like good news, but even though about 157 million people receive insurance through their jobs, that doesn’t mean they’re not paying for it.

A new survey released from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that Americans will pay about $4,000 to cover their families with health insurance through work. That’s a 14 percent increase, $482 more, compared to 2009 numbers. The main reason workers are being forced to pay more is because a slow economy is forcing companies to push more of the burden on their employees. The price of family policies increased by three percent to $13,770 according to Bloomberg.com. “Businesses have been shifting more of the costs of health insurance to workers through premiums, deductibles and other cost-sharing,” Drew Altman, Kaiser Family Foundation Chief Executive Officer, said in a statement according to Bloomberg.com. “From a consumer perspective, the cost of health insurance just keeps going up faster than wages.”

Wages have increased by about 18 percent while inflation rose 12 percent since 2005. During that same time employees have experienced a 47 increase in their insurance contributions, while premium costs have increased 27 percent. And even though workers are paying more and more each year, they’re actually receiving less coverage. In 2010 more than one out of four employees had deductibles of at least $1,000. “What insurance is in this country is gradually changing. It’s becoming less comprehensive. It looks less and less like the comprehensive coverage their parents got,” Altman told Bloomberg.com. “From the perspective of working people, they’re getting less for more.”

Experts believe large employers are pushing the trend of having employees handle more of the health care cost burden. “We’re seeing that the continued economic downturn is leading to more burden for employees,” Kaiser Foundation Vice President Gary Claxton told Bloomberg.com. He believes that the health care overhaul will help lower insurance costs. “We don’t know how quickly that might happen. At least in the early years, I’m not sure health reform is going to mean that workers are going to face lower contribution amounts,” he said.

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.

A new study released by the Kaiser Health Foundation found that millions of people who pay for their own insurance are facing big increases in premium costs. The study says that most people in the US get health insurance through an employer, but there are 14 million under the age of 65 who purchase it through the individual market. And three out of four of those people have recently been told their rates were on the rise.

The study found that the average recent rate increase was 20 percent. Most are paying the increase, but some are switching plans or changing to a different company. “With people in the individual market being hit with average increases of 20%, the survey shows that the steep increases we have been reading about over the last several months are not just extreme cases,” Kaiser Family Foundation President and CEO Drew Altman said in a news release.

The survey found that the average annual premium for someone paying for their own insurance is $3,606 while those with employer-sponsored coverage have annual premiums that are $4,824 on average. Typically older people say they’re paying higher premiums than younger people.  The survey questioned 1,038 people between the ages of 18-64 who pay for their own health insurance coverage.

This week the White House unveiled new details about a plan that will allow young adults to stay covered under their parents’ health insurance policies until they’re 26-years-old. The new policy forces companies offering employer-sponsored  health plans to offer coverage for their employees’ children up to the age of 26. The rules don’t require the young adult to live with his or her parents, attend college or even be a dependent. The twenty-somethings can also be married or unmarried.

Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius estimates that 1.2 million people currently without health insurance coverage will have it because of this new rule. According to a report in the New York Times, the health department estimates that it will cost $3,380 in 2011 to cover each new insurance customer and $3500 in 2012. In 2013 it will cost about $3690 for this coverage. This equates to about a one percent increase in family premiums, according to government officials.

These new rules will begin to take effect September 23, but there are some exceptions. Companies are allowed to exclude adult children of their employees until 2014 if the children already have access to their own insurance through their employee. Some companies are offering this additional coverage now, and they aren’t waiting until the upcoming deadlines. Under the new rules, employers must give young adults a 30-day enrollment window for signing up under their parents’ coverage.

Some people feel the rules or too lenient. “Regulatory agencies may have stretched their authority in writing these rules. Adult children can live 2,000 miles away from their parents, be married and not have spoken to Mom and Dad in a year, and they could still be added to the parents’ employer-sponsored health plan just like any other child,” said James P. Gelfand, director of health policy at the United States Chamber of Commerce, to the New York Times. However, according to the Chicago Tribune, other companies are getting a jump on the new rules. Trustmark, an insurance provider to more than two million people across the US, started offering the coverage My 1. “This early implementation will ensure graduating college students maintain health insurance coverage without falling into the ranks of the uninsured,” said John Anderson, the company’s senior vice president . “This ultimately closes the possible gap in coverage that would have occurred until this fall.”

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.

The health care debate is heating up and even though there are lots of angles to argue– no one can deny that insurance is expensive. According to the Commonwealth Fund it’s going to keep increasing. In the past decade the average annual family premium plan doubled in cost, jumping from $6,958 to $13,436. And some say it could double again in the next ten years, reaching a whopping $24,000 by 2020.

Soaring premiums have forced some healthier Americans to forgo insurance coverage altogether. Delaware’s Daily Times says that’s the case for resident Dequilla Hurt who canceled her insurance and won’t have any coverage until her probationary period ends at her new job. They interviewed Hurt for a recent report on the state’s rising health care costs. “I have this window of time where I have no health insurance. If something happens to me, if I go to the emergency room now, the total cost will be on me. Will I be able to afford the cost of an emergency room visit? That worries me,” said Hurt.

A Gallup poll found that the salary you bring in greatly impacts the likelihood of having insurance. Of young adults making more than $48,000 a year, 86 percent have insurance. But of those who bring in half that annually, less than $24,000, only 58 percent spring for a health plan.

Some are pointing to the insurance industry’s lack of competition as the reason why costs are increasing at such a fast rate. In just over a dozen years the industry has experienced more than 400 mergers and the number of choices for consumers has dropped by 20 percent which means fewer options for employers looking for the best deal. The Government Accountability Office says that the five largest providers of small group insurance control 75 percent or more of the market share in 34 states. In fact, one out of every nine Americans has insurance with WellPoint, which is the parent company of Blue Cross Blue Shield and Anthem.

Some say that while insurance companies can carry part of the blame for rising premiums, there are other sectors of the health care industry that are driving up costs for Americans. The Journal Sentinel in Wisconsin talked to a Harvard professor who believes part of the problem lies with consumers themselves. “The primary reason that health care costs and health insurance premiums are rising so rapidly is the amount of health care that we consume,” said Katherine Baicker, a professor of health economics at the Harvard School of Public Health. “Now, that is not to say there are no problems with the insurance industry.”

Health insurance for the self-employed is always a dicey topic. How do you get good health insurance when you are self-employed? How do you get good health insurance and still be able to afford it?

Everyone is seeking new and less expensive ways to get health insurance. The costs of having health insurance are often too taxing but the risks of not having health insurance are so potentially devastating that not having health insurance is inconceivable.