Approximately 5 million adults ages 19 to 23 in the United States were without health insurance for the entire year in 2006, according to federal statistics. Among the reasons given for not having health insurance, about 30 percent said they didn't think it was worth the cost.

The data, from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's News and Numbers, also showed that 46 percent of uninsured young adults, or 2.2 million, worked full time, while 26 percent, or 1.3 million, worked part time. About 80 percent of the 5 million young adults without health iinsurance throughout 2006 were not full-time students.  

According to the data, more than two-thirds of young adults without insurance during 2006 did not see a doctor, and young men were more likely than young women to be uninsured all year. Also, young adults who lacked health insurance in 2006 were only about half as likely as those who had insurance part of the year to have a family doctor or other usual source of health care.

The data are drawn from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. For more information, see "Characteristics of Uninsured Young Adults: Estimates for the U.S. Civilian Non-institutionalized Population 19-23 years of age, 2006," at www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st246/stat246.pdf.