According to WebMD more Americans have found a means of securing affordable health insurance in the last year. The bad news? That doesn't mean their health is protected.

A total of 45.7 million Americans had no health insurance in 2007, which is 1.3 million fewer uninsured Americans than in 2006. The sources of the boost in coverage are subsidized and more affordable health insurance plans, including government-funded insurance programs like Medicare and SCHIP.

But at the same time, 25 million Americans are underinsured, up from 16 million two years ago. So while people are finding more affordable health insurance, there aren't always covered when they get sick or injured.

On the one hand, those with coverage are more likely to get regular checkups, which keeps them healthy and means they're less likely to incur medical debt. However, at the same time it's important that people are covered in the event that they need their insurance, otherwise they're wasting money.

And at the end of the day, while more people are covered the government has still paid 56 billion to cover uncompensated health care costs, so no one is really saving money when low quality plans are offered at more affordable rates.

Providing good quality, affordable health insurance to all Americans has been called one of the biggest humanitarian causes of our generation. But now, as economic woes related to medical debt continue to grow, it's also looking like a sound investment in our nationwide financial success.

Reuters reported this week that while Americans without an affordable health insurance policy will pay about $30 billion for health care in 2008, they will also receive about $56 billion in free care.

That $56 billion will be covered by government programs, private philanthropy, and more. But, there's still a large chunk of money that accrues in medical debt, leaving doctors, hospitals, and those who are insured to foot the bill.

In light of this information, offering an affordable health insurance plan to those who are currently uninsured is, according to the article, a "good investment" for society.

And of course, that good investment would have even longer reaching benefits, including boosting workplace productivity, minimizing emergency room visits, and impacting the growing problems of many "preventable" diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and even stroke and some cancers.

In an effort to save money on health insurance costs, many states are forcing long-time employees to either start paying their own medical, or leave.

And in a lot of cases, they're leaving.

It's an unfortunate and frustrating story. Redorbit.com offers several examples of hard working people driven out of their jobs early in the name of health insurance.

One woman, who could have retired in 5 and 1/2 years with full pension based on her $46,600-a-year accounting job at the sate Department of Corrections has to leave because to do otherwise would bankrupt her in healthcare costs.

Others took jobs that a lot of people turn up their noses at based on their willingness to do hard work, so long as they got good benefits in return. Now, they're being forced to leave or lose those benefits.

And now rising health insurance costs are becoming such a burden for many states that the traditionally big draw of good benefits won't exist for most state jobs.

New employees will be expected to pay for their health insurance coverage, which will likely make a big dent in what is already traditionally a smaller paycheck.

With the rising costs of group health insurance many employers have found themselves unable to provide coverage to their workers without driving the business down into dangerous economic territory.

Which is why, as Kaiser reports, many small business owners are looking to professional organizations and trade groups to offer group health insurance to their employees.

At first glance it looks great - some organizations like state medical or bar associations offer dues-paying members the option of buying into a group health insurance plan with them. The coverage is often designed to mirror employer based coverage, and is less expensive than individual policies.

But it's important to look closely at these types of policies. Purchasing group health insurance through one of these associations means paying into an organization that isn't as carefully regulated as individual or employer-based coverage. Too often consumers discover the hard way that their coverage isn't all that great after all.

And in the worst case scenario, they can discover that they've been paying into fraudulent insurance, leaving them with substantial medical debt when something goes wrong.

This is why it's so important to know that the company you're working with is legitimate, hopefully with a long-standing history in the community. It sounds nice to save money on insurance through an organization, but not understanding who that organization might be or what type of coverage they're offering can lead straight to financial ruin.

In an effort to curb costs to both consumers and insurance companies alike, legislators are starting to look at prescription drug companies and evaluate ways to make affordable health insurance more readily available to all Americans.

One recent example is that of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, who signed into law one of the nation's most aggressive limits on gift giving to medical professionals by prescription drug salespeople. The idea is that inflated drug costs are crushing affordable health insurance plans, and that by minimizing the ways that prescription drug companies seek to woo medical professionals fewer overpriced and sometimes unnecessary drugs will end up getting prescribed.

According to Boston.com, this new law also promotes electronic medical records keeping in doctors' offices, requires state university to graduate more primary care doctors, and even allows supervisors to hold hearings when health insurers try to raise their premiums.

Overall, the goal is to provide more primary care doctors (and fewer pricey specialists), to better organize health care in general, minimize prescription drug costs, and make affordable health insurance more available to state citizens.

This should also ease some of the costs of enforcing medical coverage in Massachusetts, which is a legal requirement. By making affordable health insurance a reality, more people will be able to purchase individual policies, and rely less on the state to subsidize their coverage.

Massachusetts' law requiring coverage has proven far more successful than previously predicted, leading to much higher costs for the state. But, as legislators make clear, revising health care isn't going to be a quick or easy process; instead, as we're seeing it will take time and considerable effort to find just the right balance between what the state can pay, and what the citizens can pay for themselves.

The new survey reported at MSN Health by The Commonwealth Fund doesn't tell us anything new about the state of health insurance coverage in America, it simply adds facts and statistics to what we already know.

It's not surprising that 82% of Americans think that our health care system needs a major overhaul, or that better health insurance coverage could save lives. After all, this is why both Presidential Candidates make it a point to address health care as often as possible when they're in the public eye.

We know that we need better quality of care for all citizens, that we need to offer affordable health insurance coverage to everyone, and that we need to reduce the number of uninsured.

We're even aware that we need to better organize our system to minimize unnecessary testing and simplify health care for everyone.

What we don't know is how to do it. Some argue that a universal plan would handle these problems, while critics say we can't afford that.

Others say we need to let the market handle the health insurance coverage problem, while others say that those who are already sick would suffer from this plan.

And everywhere in-between, there's some kind of plan that has both support and critics that confuse the issue.

Which one will be put into action depends on who you vote for, and who gets elected depends on how much each American is willing to pay for health coverage for all.

But one thing is clear: something must be done, and everyone agrees on that.

With the rising costs of gas, food, and mortgage payments, it's no surprise that finding an affordable health insurance plan has become a bit like the search for the holy grail.

But as consumers seek to save money on health care and surgical procedures, medical tourism is enjoying a potentially dangerous boom.

At Kaiser's Daily Health Policy Report, the increase in medical tourism is linked to a loss of revenue for hospitals. Though some insurance agencies are actually promoting medical tourism as part of a more affordable health insurance plan, the impact on physicians and patients alike could be a bad one.

Doctor's and hospitals stand to lose billions of dollars, as medical procedures performed on Americans in different countries are predicted to jump 10 times over the next 10 years to nearly 16 million.

But there's another risk involved: the risk to the patient's health. While it might save money - even a lot of money - to opt for an affordable health insurance plan that doesn't cover surgical procedures, going abroad for those procedures means that you're sacrificing the quality and standards for medical care that are so important here.

And then there are the dangers of traveling after having surgery, the need for follow-up appointments, and more.

Certainly American citizens need more options when it comes to the procedures they need to have, and the amount those procedures should cost. But it's still important to safeguard your health yourself by making careful and fully informed medical decisions.