“In 2007, close to two of three people younger than 65 were enrolled in employer-sponsored insurance. By 2010, that share had fallen to slightly more than half, a decline of 10 percentage points, according to HSC’s nationally representative 2010 Health Tracking Household Survey (see Data Source and Figure 1). The sharp drop in employer coverage reflects a rapid acceleration of a long-term decline in employer health coverage — except for a small uptick in the late 1990s, when the economy grew at an unusually fast rate.
“Employer health coverage has become unaffordable for a growing share of the population, especially for low-income families, or those with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level — $44,100 for a family of four in 2010. Between 2001 and 2010, the proportion of low-income nonelderly people with employer coverage dropped from 42 percent to 24 percent. Among middle-income people — 200 to 400 percent of poverty — and higher-income people — above 400 percent of poverty — employer coverage held more or less steady until 2007 and then dropped sharply, suggesting affordability problems are spreading up the income ladder.”
–Chapin White and James D. Reschovsky, “Great Recession Accelerated Long-Term Decline of Employer Health Coverage,” National Institute for Health Care Reform, March 2012
