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The Census Bureau estimates that the number of uninsured amounts to 45.7 million people. But the agency might be overcounting by millions due to faulty assumptions. Another problem: That 45.7 million figure includes undocumented immigrants, even though they aren't likely to be covered under new laws.

But that hasn't stopped both parties in Congress from using the flawed numbers liberally, as they debate health-care overhaul this summer

These sorts of numbers made headlines last week when the CBO dealt a blow to a bill introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy. The congressional budget watchdog, which relied in part on the 45.7 million uninsured number, said the bill would cost $1 trillion over 10 years, and reduce the number of uninsured Americans by just 17 million, leaving tens of millions of people without coverage.

But the CBO was evaluating just one piece of a larger proposal. For one thing, it omitted a proposed expansion of Medicaid, which would have reduced the number of uninsured further