New Research from EBRI: Erosion of Job-Based Health Insurance Continues:

Less Than Two-Thirds of All Americans Had Coverage Through Work in 2004

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Just under 60 percent of all individuals living in the United States were covered by employment-based health benefits during 2004, down from almost 64 percent in 2000, a study published today by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute shows.

The study adds that the erosion of employment-based health benefits is expected to continue at least until the unemployment rate drops below 5 percent and as long as the cost of providing health benefits continues to increase.

Titled "Uninsured Unchanged in 2004, But Employment-Based Health Coverage Declined," the study is published in the October 2005 EBRI Notes, and is available online at http://www.ebri.org . It is based on recently released Census Bureau data. The EBRI report notes that the vast majority of Americans who have health insurance get it through the workplace (from their own or a family member's job), so employment-based health coverage rates have national significance.

Overall, the EBRI study finds, the total rate of the uninsured in the United States remained statistically unchanged in 2004 at just under 16 percent, since the decline in employment-based health coverage was largely offset by an increase in government- based public programs (primarily for the elderly, disabled, and children). The decline in employment-based coverage continued a downward trend that started between 2000 and 2001, following a period of increasing coverage dating from 1994, the study notes. ...

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Employee Benefit Research Institute

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