Contact: Liberty Counsel Public Relations Department, 800-671-1776

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 /Christian Newswire/ -- President Obama claims there are 47 million uninsured Americans, but is that number accurate? At his July 22, 2009, news conference, Obama said that health insurance reform is "not just about the 47 million Americans who don't have any health insurance at all."

Liberty Counsel found that the statistic comes from the latest U.S. Census Bureau Report, "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007," which can be accessed through the U.S. Census official website, or here.

On page 30 of the report, the number of "PEOPLE" who were uninsured in 2006 was 46,995,000, which actually dropped by 1.3 million in 2007 to 45,657,000. But who are these people? Of the 46 million "PEOPLE" without insurance, 10,231,000 are listed as "Not a citizen" in 2006. In 2007, this figure is 9,737,000. Beyond the noncitizens, a large number are high-income earners. Under the "Household Income" section, the number of uninsured who make $75,000 or more is 9,283,000 in 2006 and 9,115,000 in 2007. An additional 8,459,000 in 2006 had a household income of $50,000 to $74,999. In 2007 this number was 8,488,000.

In addition, a May 2003 nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office report, "How Many People Lack Health Insurance and For How Long," says, "It is frequently stated that about 40 million Americans lack health insurance. That estimate, however, overstates the number of people who are uninsured all year. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that between 21 million and 31 million people were uninsured for the entire year in 1998 -- the most recent year for which reliable comparative data are available. Since then, the number which is uninsured all year probably has not changed substantially, given historical trends. The uninsured population is fluid, with many people gaining and losing insurance."

Mathew Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, said, "The President and his allies in Congress are masters of confusion and deception. They create nonexistent 'emergencies' to scare the American people into submission. They have a political agenda which distorts the facts regarding health care. ObamaCare is not at all about insuring the uninsured. It is about Chicago-style political power which does not respect life or liberty."