Report: Employer-Provided Health Insurance Erodes Across the Board
Overall, about 6.4 million fewer workers had employer-provided health insurance in 2006 than in 2000. This trend contrasts with the time period between 1995 and 2000, when the share of workers covered by their employers increased nationally, from 49.6 percent to 51.1 percent, according to the report, "A Decade of Decline: The Erosion of Employer-Provided Health Care in the United States and California, 1995-2006," released by the Economic Policy Institute.
This dramatic loss of employer-provided health insurance since 2000 is not simply driven by the loss of high-quality jobs, such as those in the manufacturing sector. Rather, it is caused by the significant decline in employers providing coverage within existing jobs across the board. The burden of these employer cuts is not carried by part-time or marginal workers. Rather, the most dramatic loss is among workers with the strongest connection to the labor force.
One of the main findings of the report is the dramatic drop in employer-provided coverage caused by employers cutting coverage within existing jobs, rather than the shifting of jobs from high-coverage industries like manufacturing to lower-coverage industries.