BEIJING, Aug. 31 (Xinhuanet)-- The US poverty rate rose to 12.7 percent of the population last year, the country's Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

    Overall, 37 million people were living in poverty, 1.1 million people more than in 2003.

    At the same time, enrollment in Medicaid, the US health-insurance program for the indigent, rose 5.6 percent to 37.5 million, or almost 13 percent of the population. Government health plans including Medicaid cover more than one out of four Americans.

    "Medicaid is under the gun," said Rowland, whose private Washington-based group studies health-care trends, in an interview today. "If we have more poverty, we have more people straining the safety net."

    In addition, the number of Americans without any kind of health insurance rose to a record 45.8 million, up 800,000 from 2003, the report said.

    The rise in poverty probably resulted from a decline in wages for people working full-time year-round, said June O'Neill, a professor of economics at Baruch College in New York and a former head of the Congressional Budget Office.

    The poverty threshold varies according to the sizes and makeups of households. For instance, a family of four with two children was considered to be living in poverty if income was $19,157 or less. For a family of two with no children, it was $12,649. For a person 65 and over living alone, it was $9,060.

    The estimates on poverty, level of insurance and income are based on supplements to the bureau's Current Population Survey, and are conducted over three months, beginning in February, at about 100,000 households nationwide. Enditem

    (Agencies)