The purpose of this paper is to review data with regard to : • Define the uninsured population. • Determine why people are uninsured. • Consider solutions that have already proven to be successful. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that hospitals provided $17 billion and physicians provided $11 billion in uncompensated care, in 1995. At least 42.6 million Americans were without health insurance and another 71.5 million people were without insurance during some part of 1997 according to a Datawatch survey. Conflicting financial incentives, cost pressures, unrealized and/or unrealistic expectations and incoherent policies make it difficult for the uninsured to obtain health care insurance. Lack of health insurance significantly affects an individuals access to preventative and basic health services as well as technically advanced procedures. In addition to health costs, there are also financial costs for those without insurance and the rest of society. However, it is difficult to determine what these costs are because:- • The data is not being collected. • Where data is being collected, it is not being collected uniformly. • Only certain providers, notably hospitals, submit the data. Failure of President Clinton's healthcare reform resulted in smaller, incremental changes initiated by government and non-governmental groups such as think tanks, employers and insurance companies. Many of these initiatives have encouraged communities to find their own local solutions.