Who loses employer-based insurance?

Employer-based health insurance is down across all major demographic groups in 2011 compared with 2008. However, it has decreased the most among blacks (6.5 percentage points), those aged 27 to 35 (6.2 points), and those with an annual income between $36,000 and $89,999 (6.1 points).

Several other groups also showed above-average declines in employer-based health insurance, including Americans who are not college educated, those between the ages of 36 and 44, low-income adults, Southerners, Hispanics, and men.

High-income and highly educated Americans—who have been the most likely to get their health insurance from an employer every year since 2008—were among the least likely to report a decline.
However, the two groups least likely to have employer-based health insurance—seniors, who at the age of 65 qualify for Medicare, and 18- to 26-year-olds—were also among the least affected by the drop-off in employer-based healthcare.

The bottom line

The issue of health insurance in the United States is far from fading into the background. Currently, 26 states are seeking to overturn the new healthcare law in court.

At the same time, nearly every state is scrambling to figure out to how to fund and implement the law amid tough economic times and congressional lawmakers are debating the future of Medicare and Medicaid. The confluence of these issues makes who is covered and how they get their coverage more relevant than ever.

Two major forces are affecting where Americans get their health coverage: One is President Barack Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and the other is high unemployment and underemployment. As only certain parts of the new healthcare law have been implemented, the latter issue appears to be the more influential one at this time, with steady declines since 2008 in the percentage of Americans who get their health insurance from an employer.