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Employers just don't pay the health care bills for working-age people in some states as they do in others.
The U.S. Census Bureau's new American Community Survey tables show that employers in 10 states provided health coverage for fewer than 58% of the people ages 18 through 64 in those states.
That compares with a median of 63.1%, and a maximum of 70.4%.
Related: Top 10 states for employer health coverage
To calculate a state's employer coverage rate, we added the figures for people ages 18 through 64 who had either civilian employer health coverage or TRICARE military health coverage, either on its own or combined with some other form of coverage, such as Medicare.
For a look at the 10 states with the lowest employer coverage percentages, see the gallery accompanying this article.
Some of those states have low employer coverage rates because many working-age people are uninsured. In some of the other states in the gallery, many working-age adults have Medicaid, Medicare, individual commercial coverage or Indian Health Service coverage.
What it means: For employers and their benefits advisors, one takeaway is that employers in the states with low employer coverage percentages may have to work harder to get hospitals, doctors and even health insurers to take them seriously. In some counties in those states, other health system players may think of employer plans as health care finance guppies, rather than as the powerful whales they are in other parts of the country.
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