Tuesday, United Stated Census Bureau officials announced that the number of Americans without health insurance has dropped by a million in 2007, due to the increase in the number of children benefitting from government-funded programs that offer health insurance.

In 2006, the percentage of uninsured Americans was 15.8 (47 million people), dropping, in 2007, down to 15. 3 (45.7 million), chief of the Census Bureau's Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division David Johnson stated.

Furthermore, the number of children without health insurance dropped by 600,000 to 8.1 million in 2006, he added.

The reason for this unexpected good news, as President of The Commonwealth Fund Karen Davis reckons, seems to be the government-sponsored health insurance programs.

For example, in Massachusetts, which has a government-sponsored health insurance program, the percentage of uninsured people is 4.7, while in Texas, which does not have an aforementioned program, the percentage rises to a whopping 25.5.

Massachusetts’ insurance plan, which might easily become a model for other states or even for the nation itself, requires everyone to take out health insurance or suffer a tax penalty. Moreover, employers are required to offer coverage or otherwise pay an assessment.

Since the program came into effect in mid-2006, more than 439,000 people have taken out health insurance; that is two-thirds of the estimated 650,000 who were uninsured when the program kicked off.

Overall, government program coverage rose from 80.3 million (in 2006) to 83 million (in 2007) and the number of people benefitting from Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income residents, increased from 38.3 million to 39.6 million last year.