Studies show large employers in particular will still offer health insurance despite such options as the public exchanges.
But those numbers can be misleading, since the recession spelled the end of coverage for millions of employees before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was even in its final stages of development.
A report from the Robert Wood Foundation says the percentage of private sector employees with employer-sponsored health insurance fell from more than 53 percent in 2009 to less than 50 percent by 2013. They pin the blame squarely on the recession.
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The study, based on employer data, found that more workers opted out of coverage before the recession hit. Then, when the economy tanked, employer coverage began to erode for the first time in many years.
The math isn't quite as simple as subtracting the number of employers who fell off the insurance sponsoring chart.
"Following the recession, fewer employers offered insurance to their employees," according to a statement from RWJ. "The share of U.S. employers offering health insurance declined 5.7 percentage points, to 50 percent in 2013, and the share of workers in firms that offer coverage fell from 87.7 percent to 84.8 percent. In all, 35 states saw significant declines in the share of employers offering insurance to employees following the recession."
So the decline was partly due to the fact that there were fewer employees at the firms offering coverage following the recession.
Other findings include:
- The percentage of private-sector employers offering coverage fell nearly 6 percentage points — from 55.7 percent in 2005 to 50 percent in 2013.
- The percentage of workers who took up employer-offered coverage fell from 79.7 percent in 2005 to 77.8 percent in 2009.
- Post-recession, workers' take-up of coverage fell further to 75.3 percent in 2013, along with declines in employer offers of coverage and the percentage of workers eligible to sign up for coverage.
- The average annual premium for employee-only coverage increased from $3,848 in 2005 to $5,478 in 2013. Family premiums increased from $10,367 on average to $16,302 during the same time period.
"Before the recession, the overall trends were relatively stable," SHADAC director Lynn Blewett said. "After the recession, all indicators were down. The percentage of firms offering insurance declined, and even if insurance was offered through a job, fewer workers accepted it."
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
