A new report by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) shows that the percentage of workers with employment-based health-insurance coverage continues to decline. The EBRI analysis, which looked at month-by-month health-coverage rates before, during, and after the recession, finds that the brief uptick in employment-based health insurance immediately after the recession has not endured. […]
A new report by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) shows that the percentage of workers with employment-based health-insurance coverage continues to decline.
The EBRI analysis, which looked at month-by-month health-coverage rates before, during, and after the recession, finds that the brief uptick in employment-based health insurance immediately after the recession has not endured.
Employment-based health benefits are the most common form of health insurance for non-poor and nonelderly individuals in the United States, covering 69 percent of workers, 35 percent of nonworking adults, and 55 percent of children, according to EBRI.
Between December 2007, when the most recent economic recession officially started, and June 2009, when the recession technically ended, the percentage of workers with coverage in their own name fell from 60.4 percent to 56 percent. While that ticked up almost 1 percentage point by the end of 2009, the coverage rate fell to 55.8 percent by April 2011.
“While the link between health-insurance coverage and employment has long been known, these data underscore the degree to which unemployment rates directly affect the levels of the uninsured in the United States,” Paul Fronstin, director of EBRI’s Health Research and Education Program and author of the report, said in a news release.
While the percentage of workers with coverage has ebbed and flowed with the economy and health-care costs, trends in the percentage of workers offered insurance coverage and the percentage of workers taking coverage when offered have remained steady. The EBRI report notes that most uninsured workers reported that they did not have coverage because of cost — anywhere from 70 percent to 90 percent over the December 1995−July 2011 period.
The analysis examines employment-based health-benefit coverage rates on a monthly basis from December 1995 to July 2011, to allow for more accurate identification of changes in trends, and to more clearly show the effects of recessions and unemployment on coverage, EBRI says.
The Employee Benefit Research Institute (www.ebri.org) describes itself as a private, nonprofit research institute based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on health, savings, retirement, and economic security issues.
