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US employer-based health coverage declines

The proportion of the population covered through work — either their own or a family member’s employer — declined last year for the seventh year in a row, according to a new study recently released by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

Employer-based coverage remains the most prominent form of health insurance in the U.S., with 62.9 percent of people under the age of 65 covered this way. But the rate has fallen every year since 2000, when 68.3 percent of this population had employer-sponsored health insurance.

In California, the percentage dropped to 56.3 percent in 2006-07 from 59.7 percent in 2000-01.

The state with the highest percentage of population covered by employers in 2006-07 was New Hampshire, at 75.4 percent. New Mexico was the lowest, at 50.7 percent.

Source AHIP Solutions SmartBrief - Sacramento Business Journal