A growing number of uninsured Americans are one of the biggest and most debated troubles we face in our health care system. The actual count of the number of uninsured gets considerable policy use and media interest and an adequate amount of attention that when national estimates of the uninsured differ, it raises doubts about our ability to design solutions or test their impact. This issue brief begins with a comparison of the total number of uninsured from three major national surveys, demonstrating that these estimates are actually more consistent than what is often perceived. In other words, who the uninsured are does not vary much across national surveys. Transversely, of all surveys according to the Keiser commission on Medicaid and the uninsured, better than half of the uninsured are in low-income families and about half are minorities. The majority of uninsured adults are working, but their lack of education makes it more difficult for them to get jobs that offer employer-sponsored coverage. Several surveys are able to provide national health insurance coverage estimates, including how many are uninsured. Different estimates of the number of uninsured released each year are not exactly the same and that has at times created questions about how large the problem really is. Health insurance estimates from national surveys vary depending on how the questions are couched and how long a period people are asked to recall their familiarity. For instance, respondents may be asked what their insurance coverage is in the month they are being interviewed or if they have been without coverage anytime in the past year or two years. Depending on the reference period respondents are asked to recall, national survey estimates of the uninsured have ranged as widely as 20 to 80 million. At one end, different surveys report 20 and 35 million being uninsured over the course of a full year, while as many as 80 to 85 million have been uninsured for at least part of a two year...