A new study finds that about 900,000 Pennsylvanians lacked health insurance during 2004, and about half of those without insurance were between the ages of 18 and 34.

		On the Internet See a summary of the study Read the "Health Insurance Coverage" study

The findings, released yesterday by the state Department of Insurance, calculated the statewide uninsured rate at 8 percent, lower than the most recent Census Bureau figure, which showed that 11.4 percent of Pennsylvanians were uninsured in 2003.

The report, the first conducted by the state, establishes a baseline for measuring future efforts to extend health insurance coverage in Pennsylvania. The plan is for future surveys to address widely noted trends, such as the erosion of health benefits being provided by some companies.

Even so, the phone survey of 6,733 households found that nearly half of the state's uninsured residents -- 44 percent -- said they worked a full-time job. Of the employed uninsured residents, 62 percent were employed in service jobs and 21 percent worked in retail.

The contrast between the new report and the census data led Paul Lodico of the Mon Valley Unemployed Committee, a consumer group, to question the validity of the state survey. It was based on telephone interviews, but many uninsured people lack phones, Lodico said.

But Diane Koken, the state's insurance commissioner, defended the report, saying neither number invalidated the other.

"We can't really say which number is better," Koken said. Noting methodological differences in the surveys, Koken said: "It's apples and oranges."

The new state survey found that the uninsured rate in Pittsburgh was 8 percent.

That's lower than the 10 percent estimate that the Allegheny County Health Department generated in its estimate of uninsured residents in the county during 2002.

Regardless of the source, most surveys of the uninsured find that young adults disproportionately lack coverage.

That's true in Pennsylvania, too, according to the new report. It found that one of every five Pennsylvanians age 18 to 34 lacked health insurance during 2004.

Feelings of invincibility are among the reasons why some young people don't acquire health insurance, Koken said.

About 27 percent of the uninsured in Pennsylvania said they lacked coverage for more than five years.

Seventy percent of those without coverage said insurance was too costly, according to the survey.

Uninsured residents were concentrated in Pennsylvania's cities. Nineteen percent of the state's uninsured residents lived in Pittsburgh while 30 percent lived in Philadelphia.