between 2004 and 2006, median real income levels rose ... number of uninsured Americans increased by 3.4 million ...

CQ HEALTHBEAT NEWS | Feb. 20, 2008 – 4:37 p.m. | Study Finds Health Benefits, Not Wages, Key to Increasing Coverage | By Jesse Stanchak
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The study found that the average number of Americans who lost their insurance each year increased faster during the economic recovery of 2004-2006 than the recession years of 2000-2004. The study concludes this is because the number of Americans receiving coverage from their jobs continued to decline, while wage increases failed to match growing insurance premiums.

“In good economic times and bad, the dominant factor behind the growing number of uninsured was the decline in employer-sponsored health coverage,” study lead author John Holahan says.

During the recession of 2000-2004, when real median household wages fell from $49,163 to $47,323, the poverty level rose from 11.3 to 12.7 percent and the number of uninsured rose by 6 million.

In contrast, between 2004 and 2006, median real income levels rose by nearly $800 and the poverty rate fell by 0.4 percent, two common indicators of a robust economy. Yet the number of uninsured Americans increased by 3.4 million during those years, to an annual average rate of 1.7 million newly uninsured persons during 2004-2006, versus an average of 1.5 million during the recession years of 2000-2004.
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Population increases also are a factor in rising rates of the uninsured. The U.S. population rose by 10 million people between 2000 and 2004 and by another 10 million people between 2004-2006. The study also concludes that illegal immigrants are a factor in the rising number of uninsured persons, comprising about 20 percent of the newly uninsured. The study found that the biggest decline in employer coverage came in the southern and western parts of the country, where population levels are rising faster and there are fewer manufacturing jobs.