Portrait of the uninsured: What are the key determinants in having health insurance?

Employee Benefits News
By McLean Robbins
October 11, 2007

At least 46.4 million Americans under the age of 65 lacked health insurance last year. That’s 17.9% of the total population, according to a new report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute. While these numbers certainly point to a significant portion of the population, Paul Fronstin, director of the health, research and education program at EBRI, calls the numbers “not as scary as some are making them out to be.”

EBRI’s analysis showed a decline in employer-based coverage; 62.2% of individuals had employer-based coverage in 2006, down from 64.4% in 1994. Individual health coverage has hovered in the high 6% to low 7% range since 1994. “We need to keep this debate going [regarding the availability of insurance for all.] It’s important. [It] has wide-ranging implications [for employers, employees, and policy groups alike],” Fronstin comments.

The percentage of uninsured within the country can directly or indirectly affect your own workforce and insurance premiums. Here’s a snapshot of what types of workers are most likely to be uninsured:

• Occupation: Workers in the agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining and construction industries are more likely to be uninsured than those in other industries.

• Income: In 2006, one-third of the uninsured were in families with annual incomes of less than $20,000. Nearly 36% of individuals in families with incomes of less than $10,000 were uninsured, compared with 7.1 % of those in families with annual incomes of $75,000 or more.

•Firm size: Nearly 63% of uninsured workers were self-employed or working in private-sector firms with fewer than 100 employees in 2006.

•Gender: Men are more likely than women to be uninsured. More than 22% of men were uninsured in 2006, versus 18.1% of women.

•Hours worked: Part-time or part-year workers accounted for 29.3% of the employed population, but accounted for 39.6% of uninsured workers. Among full-time, full-year workers, only 16% were uninsured.

• Race, ethnic origin: Hispanic workers are more likely to be uninsured than other groups. This may be due in part to the fact that 51% of the Hispanic population reported incomes of less than 200% of the federal poverty level. Among blacks, 21.8 % were uninsured, and among whites the portion was 12.8 %.