Only 24% of U.S. residents ages 0 to 64 with household incomes under 200% of the federal poverty level had employer-sponsored health coverage in 2010, down from 42% in 2001.
Between 2007 and 2010, the percentage of all nonelderly U.S. residents with health coverage fell to less than 54%, from about 64%.
Researchers at the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC), Washington, have published those figures in a report on employer-sponsored health coverage prepared for the National Institute for Health Care Reform, Washington. The HSC researchers based their analysis on data from a 2010 HSC survey that included responses from 13,595 nonelderly U.S. residents.
The researchers found that the percentage of people with group health coverage dropped partly because of rising unemployment and partly because a decline in small employers' health plans.
