WASHINGTON (Cox News Service) -- Texas has the highest percentage of people without health insurance, while the number of uninsured has declined nationwide, a U.S. Census Bureau report released Tuesday found.

Economists and health care reform advocates said they are pleased to hear that more people across the country were covered by insurance. But the bureau's report also prompted grave concerns that employers continue to offer less and less coverage for workers.

The drop in the number of uninsured can be attributed to an expansion of government-backed programs, such as Medicaid, Medicare and military health benefits said Joel Miller, senior vice president for operations at the National Coalition on Health Care, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit of corporations and labor unions seeking to pass comprehensive health care reform legislation.

He and other critics of the current system say the trend can't go on for much longer as pressures on federal and state budgets intensify.

"The market is not self correcting," said Miller.

The Census' report on poverty and health insurance coverage showed that the percentage of uninsured dropped nationwide to 15.3 percent, or 45.7 million, in 2007, compared to 15.8 percent, or 47 million, in 2006. The improvements were particularly pronounced for children, where the number without insurance dropped from 11.7 percent, or 8.7 million, in 2006 to 11 percent, or 8.1 million, in 2007.

Despite the overall improvements, Census data found that an average of 24.4 percent of Texas residents from 2005-2007, or about 5.7 million people, neither have private nor government-backed health insurance. Florida trailed not far behind, with one in five -- about 3.7 million people -- uninsured for those years.

"Texas thinks the private sector will pick up the problem but as we see this is not the case," Miller said.

He added the state did not take advantage of several federal programs that could have increased coverage for children and adults.

Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the state's Health and Human Services Commission, said several reasons explain Texas' percentage of uninsured. For one, it has a large immigrant population without health coverage. Also, the state has many small employers that are unable to afford health insurance coverage for employees.

Those without employer-based health insurance often end up in emergency rooms, one of the most expensive kinds of health care, she said. Those costs contribute to escalating health care costs for everyone else.

"It's a vicious cycle," Goodman said.

State programs such as Medicaid provide health coverage for more than 2 million children - one out of three children in Texas, she said. Medicaid accounts for about a quarter of the state's budget and enrollment for the program has increased 59 percent since 2000.

Goodman said the state has submitted a plan to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services aimed at reducing the number of uninsured and making it easier for the working poor to buy into employer-sponsored health coverage.

Besides insurance coverage, the Census report showed that the real median household income nationwide climbed 1.3 percent between 2006 and 2007, reaching $50,233. Meanwhile, the U.S. poverty rate remained relatively unchanged compared to 2006 figures.

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