MarketWatch reporter Kristen Gerencher looks beyond the headlines that hail a decline in the number of uninsured. Here's what she has to say:

Medicaid, S-chip helped keep more people from losing coverage in 2007

New Census Bureau figures released this week contained some good news: The number of Americans without health insurance fell 1.3 million last year from 47 million uninsured in 2006. The bad news: 45.7 million still lacked coverage. That's 15.3% of the U.S. population.

A staggering number of uninsured has persisted for years. What's different this time is a change in the mix of coverage. Government-funded public programs increased their enrollment by about the same number of people who were newly insured in 2007, underscoring the importance of strong safety-net programs such as Medicaid and the state children's health insurance program, or S-chip, health-policy experts said...

The portion of people covered by job-based and other private insurance declined and likely will continue to do so, placing more pressure on public programs, said Len Nichols, a health economist and director of the health-policy program for the New America Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research group in Washington.

Health care reform advocates can deservedly take some credit for the growth of the health care safety net. Read the whole story here.