The number of uninsured Americans could reach 65.7 million by 2019 if Congress does not enact comprehensive health care reform, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reported last Thursday.

Even if unemployment, income and health care costs improve, the report estimates that the number of uninsured would reach 57 million. In this best-case scenario, employer spending on health insurance premiums also would increase 72.3%, individual and family spending on premiums and out-of-pocket costs would increase 46%, and uncompensated care costs would increase 71.7%, the report estimates. Researchers from the Urban Institute prepared the analysis using a simulation model that estimates how health coverage and cost trends could change through 2019.

For more on the report, go to the “Newsroom” section of www.rwjf.org, and click on “Health Reform: the Cost of Failure.”