One in four children in Greenville County has not seen a dentist in at least a year, and one in five has no health insurance.

Faced with those statistics, New Horizon Family Health Service, Bon Secours St. Francis Health System, the Community Health Alliance and Greenville Technical College decided it was time to do something.

"10.6 percent of adults in Greenville County do not have insurance, and 23 percent of adults who have health insurance do not have dental coverage," said Andrea Smith, St. Francis' director of community ministries. "So we are opening a full-service dental clinic for adults and children who have no insurance."

Around the country, the ranks of the uninsured continue to grow. Nearly 46 million Americans have no coverage, which puts them at risk for health problems and shorter life expectancy, according to a report released Wednesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to kick off Cover the Uninsured Week (May 1-7).

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Uninsured people are less likely to have a family doctor or to get mammograms and other regular cancer screenings, and they are more likely to forego doctor visits because of cost, according to the report, which calls on leaders to make health coverage for Americans a top priority.

"I have worked in health care and health policy long enough to know that usually Congress won't act until the people do," Dr. Louis Sullivan, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, said in a release. "We need millions of Americans to call for change in order to get real action from Washington."

Nationally, according to the report, the number of uninsured Americans between 50 and 64 swelled by 2.6 million from 1994 to 2004, to about 7 million -- 40 percent of them are in the South.

Some 605,000 South Carolinians are uninsured, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Most of them are working.

Gov. Mark Sanford favors private sector solutions but opposes legislative efforts that would increase taxes or pass costs on to small businesses.

"Generally, we believe strongly in health savings accounts as a way for businesses to provide affordable health-care coverage to their employees, and would be open to looking at ways to expand their usage," Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said.

"We'd also be open to looking at legislation that would let small businesses pool their resources to provide health care to their employees."

New Horizon and its partners plan to set up a 7,000-square-foot full-service dental practice where Greenville Tech's dental science faculty and students will work alongside New Horizon dentists.

St. Francis is providing a mobile dental unit that will offer dental services at churches, schools and other locations two weeks a month.

"The commitment to collaboration to increase access to dental services among these organizations is unprecedented," Regina Cook, CEO of New Horizon, said in a release. "Strategic partnerships such as this are necessary, as resources from the state and federal level are decreasing."

The practice is expected to be up and running by the fall, but will operate temporarily out of Greenville Tech, Smith said. It will accept private insurance as well as Medicaid and Medicare, and uninsured patients will be seen on a sliding-fee scale based on their ability to pay, she said.

The group needs $1.6 million for the project, and about $850,000 has been raised. Contributors include The BMW Charity Pro Am, The Rose Charity Ball, The Duke Endowment, Hollingsworth Funds, Inc., Piedmont Health Care Foundation and the United Way of Greenville County.

"For people without health coverage, it's a different world," Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said in a release.

"They cannot access basic care or diagnostic screenings because of the cost, so their minor illnesses become major ones."