CDC: Americans with private health insurance falls to 50-year low

One thing Congress and the president can count on if universal health care legislation is not passed: the health care problem in the U.S. won't go away.

The percentage of Americans covered by private health insurance has fallen to a 50-year low, according to preliminary data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and reported by the AP. And 65 percent of non-elderly Americans had private health insurance in 2008, down from 67 percent in 2007 and almost 80 percent in the 1970s and early 1980 according to the CDC.