Excerpt: Nearly 46 million Americans were uninsured in 2004 -- up six million since 2000. The rate of those without insurance for the whole year has grown 1.5 percentage points during this period, from 14.2% in 2000 to 15.7% in 2004. What the overall uninsured numbers mask, however, is a distinct shift from insurance coverage through the private sector to insurance coverage through the public sector, particularly for children.