The number of Arizonans without health insurance shot up more than 40 percent from 2000 to last year, the Census Bureau says.

Local experts say they are skeptical that the ranks of the uninsured have grown that much.

But the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest report on poverty, income and the uninsured shows more than 1.2 million Arizonans — or one in five residents — went without health insurance last year, up from 869,000 in 2000.

Arizona Daily Star