Over 150 million individuals received health insurance through an employer in 2005, making employer-sponsored coverage the most popular form of health insurance coverage for the nonelderly in the United States. However, in recent years, there has been concern about erosion in the availability of employer-based health benefits for workers, and especially low-income workers. This paper analyzes data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), an annual survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the National Center for Health Statistics, to assess changes between 1998 and 2005 in the percentage of families with workers that have at least one offer of health insurance through an employer. Results are broken out by family income relative to the federal poverty level.

From 1998 to 2005, the offer rate fell across the board, with an overall drop of 3 percentage points from 80% to 77%. In addition, the analysis found that the likelihood of families having a job-based insurance offer varies significantly with family income in all three years, ranging from 34% of families with income below the poverty level to 91% for more-affluent families with income at least four times the federal poverty level. The decrease was 1 percentage point for families with income at the high end of the income range and 4 to 5 percentage points for families in the lower income categories. These changes are relatively small, but with over 150 million people covered by employer-sponsored health insurance, even a small percentage point drop in job-based coverage being offered to families at work can affect millions of people.

 Issue Brief (.pdf)