Connecticut is one of five states in which the percentage of people without health insurance has dipped over the past few years, according to new Census Bureau figures.

The state also tied with Iowa for the nation's seventh-lowest poverty rate in 2007 at 8.9 percent, and median incomes for both genders in Connecticut were notably higher than the nationwide figures.

The census data, released Tuesday, suggest Connecticut and some other Northeast states continue to lead the U.S. in certain positive financial indicators -- but the national picture as a whole is mixed.

Some health policy and social service advocates said Connecticut's prosperity compared with other states should not overshadow the needs of its working poor, children and elderly.

Connecticut's full-time working women, for instance, continued to earn a smaller percentage of men's median salaries than their counterparts nationwide, and 11 percent of Connecticut's children live in homes under the poverty level.

Connecticut's drop in uninsured people mirrors a slight national decrease, the first annual decline during the Bush administration.

About 9.4 percent of the state's residents, or about 326,700 people, did not have health coverage in 2007, according to the census figures. The number has reached and exceeded 10 percent in the last few years.

Ellen Andrews, executive director of the Connecticut Health Policy Project, said about 326,000 state residents buy health insurance on their own, not through work or government programs.

It includes about 12,000 people who bought policies on their own dime during the timeframe examined in the Census figures.

Andrews said that increase shows people are stretching to buy insurance, and those without it likely have the tightest finances or pre-existing conditions that make the coverage prohibitively expensive.

"I think there's this myth out there that people don't care about insurance, that they aren't going to buy it, that people who aren't insured are just deadbeats," she said.

"A huge number are buying it individually despite the huge sacrifice it means for them financially," Andrews said. "I think people know that if you get sick, you could lose your health, you could lose your car, you could lose your house, you could lose everything."

The 2007 decrease in uninsured residents also coincides with the state's expansion of eligibility for Connecticut's HUSKY program, which provides coverage for uninsured children, parents and pregnant women.

No data was available Tuesday conclusively linking the HUSKY changes to the dip in uninsured people as reported by the Census Bureau, however. The 2007 drop also does not include new members of Connecticut's Charter Oak Health Plan, which opened to the public on July 1 of this year.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell said Tuesday that she hopes the downward trend continues.

"While it is encouraging to see that the number of uninsured people is falling here in Connecticut, there is even better news on the horizon," she said, referring to the Charter Oak plan. "Everyone needs health coverage, and now, in Connecticut, our uninsured adults can get it through the Charter Oak."

The census figures on median incomes also showed Connecticut on the high end compared with many states. For example, after adjusting for inflation, last year's median U.S. household income of $50,233 was not significantly different from the $50,557 in 2000.

In Connecticut, the median household income was just under $66,000 in 2007, up from about $63,400 a year earlier.

Connecticut lagged behind the U.S. average in a key area, however: the income gap between male and female full-time workers. The $41,868 median salary for working women in the state was about 76 percent of men's median pay, which was just under $55,400.

Nationally, women are getting about 78 percent of what men receive, though U.S. median incomes for both genders -- $45,113 for men and $35,102 for women -- are significantly lower in most of the nation than in Connecticut.

Teresa Younger, executive director of the state's Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, said the income gaps, poverty and lack of insurance are intertwined for many Connecticut women.

They also live longer on average than men, meaning more years of medical expenses and other costs over a lifetime.

"What people don't understand is that women are working the majority of the minimum wage and part-time jobs," Younger said. "Those are the job areas that rarely pay health insurance, and yet women are continually giving up of themselves to make sure others are covered."

Many will pay to ensure their children have health coverage, but getting insurance for themselves may be prohibitively expensive because of women's myriad medical needs and their limited incomes, Younger said.

"The reality is that minimum wage, at the end of the day, is what many Connecticut women are having to live on. It's their only income, not an alternative income," she said.

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