Obamacare NOT what is contributing to drop in employer sponsored health insurance coverage [View all]

[Pretzel_Warrior]

The Economic Policy Institute reveals the drop in employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) for over a decade--something that has nothing to do with Obamacare. This is a critical point to cite when discussing this issue with conservaderps.

Most Americans, particularly those under age 65, rely on health insurance offered through the workplace. Thus, given these unemployment trends, it comes as no surprise that the share of Americans under age 65 covered by employer-sponsored health insurance (or ESI) eroded for the tenth year in a row in 2010, falling from 59.4 percent in 2009 to 58.6 percent. However, the situation started deteriorating long before the Great Recession: The share of Americans under age 65 covered by ESI eroded every year from 2000 to 2010, decreasing by a total of 10.6 percentage points. As many as 28 million more people under age 65 would have had ESI in 2010 if the coverage rate had remained at the 2000 level.

No demographic or socioeconomic group has been spared from the erosion of job-based insurance from 2000–10. Both genders and people of all ages, races, and education levels have suffered declines in employer-based coverage. Workers across the wage distribution, in small and large firms alike, and even those working full time and in white-collar jobs have also lost coverage.

http://www.epi.org/publication/bp337-employer-sponsored-health-insurance/

For overall reference, here is a link to a Kaiser Family Foundation table about who is covered by what types of insurance in the U.S. population. The breakdown is as follows by percentage


Employer 149.4 48.5%
Medicaid 50.6 16.4%
Uninsured 48.6 15.8%
Medicare 40 13.0%
Individual 15.4 5.0%
Other Public 3.8 1.2%
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TOTAL 307.8 100.0%


Quickly, this means for over 81% of the population (with employer sponsored, Medicare, Medicaid, or other public insurance) there will be virtually no changes.

For those who are already in private insurance market and uninsured, it will be a mixed bag. Some will qualify for expanded Medicaid. Others will be able to obtain insurance for the first time in a long time and not be denied coverage or priced out of the market. Others who purposefully choose not to be insured will be compelled to, and some younger healthier people in private insurance market will have to pay more (in many cases because the cheap policies they have cover virtually nothing).

http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/total-population/