Employment-based health coverage falls 7 percent since 2000

Current trends indicate employment-based health insurance – the most common form of health insurance coverage – is slowly eroding and will likely continue to do so.

According to new research from the nonpartisan Employee Benefits Research Institute, 61 percent of working-age Americans (including workers and their family members) had health coverage through a job in 2008, down 1 percentage point from a year earlier. That’s also more than 7 percentage points from the high of 68 percent in 2000, and lower than the 64 percent level of 1994, when former President Clinton last attempted health reform. Research implies a weak economy and growing unemployment will fuel this continuing decline.