HEALTH CARE . . . WHO'S NOT COVERED?

Remember talk during this year's health care fracas about those 39 million uninsured Americans? The government today released a 1990-92 survey -- the most helpful count so far, says TIME health care writerJanice Castro-- that reports that only 9 million Americans had no health insurance at all during that period and that 75 percent of the public never had a coverage lapse. There's actually no contradiction, Castro says. Last spring, the Census found that 39.3 million people (or 15 percent of the U.S. population) went for a stretch without coverage in 1993. The new, more systematic survey of 21,900 households delivers the bad news more precisely: about 60 million people went without for at least a month and 30 million did so for six months or longer. Castro says those with a coverage lapse are "is a constantly shifting group of people. This study would seem to argue that it's important to find a way to create a safety net for people who are between jobs."