Tracking Health Insurance Coverage by Month: Trends in Employment-Based Coverage Among Workers, and Access to Coverage Among Uninsured Workers, 1995-2012

Abstract

Prior research has shown that both the offer rate (the percentage of workers offered health benefits) and the take-up rate have both been declining. However, there is still a strong link between health benefits and employment. As a result, employment-based health benefits remain the most common form of health insurance for nonpoor and nonelderly individuals in the United States. In 2011, 58.4 percent of nonelderly individuals (under age 65) were covered by an employment-based, health-benefits plan, including 68.3 percent of workers, 34.7 percent of nonworking adults, and 54.7 percent of children. This analysis examines the recent state of employment-based health benefits, updating prior research by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) that examined trends in coverage on a monthly basis over the time period of December 1995 to July 2011. This paper extends the analysis to March 2012. Examining these data on a monthly basis allows more accurate identification of changes in trends and can also more clearly indicate the effects of recession and employment on changes in coverage. Trends in offer rates and reasons for being uninsured among uninsured workers are also examined. Between December 2007 and August 2009, the percentage of workers with coverage in their own names fell from 60.4 percent to 55.9 percent. After August 2009, there appeared to be the beginning of a recovery in the percentage of workers with employment-based coverage, and by December 2009, 56.6 percent of workers had employment-based coverage. However, by October 2011, the coverage had slipped back to 54.7 percent. Most uninsured workers reported that they did not have coverage because of cost: 70-90 percent over the December 1995-March 2012 period. The percentage of uninsured workers reporting that they were not offered employment-based health benefits was roughly 40 percent from the mid-1990s through 2003, but has been falling since, reaching 22.4 percent by the end of 2011.

The PDF for the above title, published in the July 2013 issue of EBRI Notes, also contains the fulltext of another July 2013 EBRI Notes article abstracted on SSRN: “Decisions, Decisions: Choices That Affect Retirement Income Adequacy -- EBRI’s 72nd Policy Forum”.

Keywords: Employment-based benefits, Health insurance coverage, Recession, Unemployment, Uninsured

JEL Classification: I1, J3, J32