Health insurance is a great concern to Americans now. It's likely that many Americans lack health insurance with the economy having no sign of picking up. The National Academy of Sciences reported Thursday. "Unless health insurance is made more affordable, the number of uninsured Americans is likely to continue growing over time," said Mary Sue Coleman, co-chairwoman of the committee that wrote the report. The report is the first six planned by the institute of Medicine over two years. The series is planned to find out who lacks health insurance and why, and determine what the consequences are and provide the groundwork for debate on how to correct the problem. The institute is part of the academy, a private organization supported by Congress to advise the government of scientific matters.  This first report seeks to draw a picture of the millions who lack insurance. It does not offer any recommendations. "Much of what Americans think they know about the uninsured is wrong," said Dr. Arthur Kellermann, a public health professor at Emory University Schools of Medicine in Atlanta, who also worked on the report. The Census Bureau reported last month that 38.7 million Americans went without coverage for all of 2000, compared with 39.3 million the year before, thanks to the booming economy. Experts say the trend is likely to reverse this year, given that the economy was slowing even before the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks. "Unfortunately, the recent economic slowdown might have reversed the modest gains in coverage for shorter periods." The report said that with insurance costs rising, more employers and individuals may conclude they are unable to afford coverage. Premium increases were often absorbed by employers in the strong economy of the 1990s, but that may not continue as the economy softens, the report said. The panel found that about 13.6 million of the uninsured work for employers that do not offer health insurance. Individually purchased coverage may be prohibitively costly. The chief objective of the first of the six reports is to   _  .
explain why certain groups of people lack health insurance find out who lack health insurance determine the consequences from the lack of health insurance provide suggestions to address the health insurance issue