ERC states’ employer coverage eroded since the recession, well before ACA implementation

A new report finds that declines in employer-sponsored coverage across the CSG/ERC region occurred since the 2008/9 recession, well before implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Mirroring national trends, after the recession both employers and workers in the region moved away from coverage in the four years after the recession. ERC states averaged 1.2% gains in firms offering health benefits to workers from 2004/5 to 2008/9, but that trend reverse with a 3.3% drop in the four years after the recession. Even among workers offered coverage, after the recession fewer were eligible for an employer offer and even fewer took the offer, leading to further declines in employer-sponsored coverage across the region. The report, authored by the State Health Access Data Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota, found that that the slide was likely driven by rising premiums. Workers at small firms and part time workers were hardest hit across the region. The report includes family and single coverage premiums, employee share of premiums, and detailed employer offer, eligibility and take-up rates by state, both before and after the recession, by full/part time workers and firm size.