1.25 million lose employer-sponsored health care

Added February 24th, 2012 by Judy Putnam

Judy Putnam

In Michigan, there were 1.25 million fewer people with employer-sponsored health care in 2010 than there were at the start of the decade. That’s a startling loss — it represents one out of every eight people in our state and about the equivalent of everyone in Oakland County.

The new report from the Economic Policy Institute finds that employer-sponsored health insurance in Michigan declined dramatically between 2000-2001 and 2009-2010. Only California had bigger losses with 1.5 million losing coverage.

It’s not news that Michigan has had a tough economy. Many people are out of work for long periods of time and many want full-time jobs but can only find part-time work. The cumulative impact, however, is astonishing and shows why Michigan needs to push ahead with implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Senate Bill 693 will implement a Michigan-based health exchange, an online marketplace for individuals and small businesses to purchase affordable health insurance. It has passed the Senate but is on hold in the House.

The report, A decade of declines in employer-sponsored health insurance coverage, also found:

• Michigan dropped from 77 percent of its population covered by employer-sponsored health insurance to 64 percent, the third-largest drop (13 percent) among the states over the decade. Only Indiana (13.6 percent) and South Carolina (13.3 percent) had bigger losses.

• Michigan is still better than average with 64 percent of the under-65 population covered by employer-sponsored insurance compared with 59 percent nationwide. But 14 states have a bigger share of their population enjoying employer-sponsored insurance.

• Michigan ranked 6th in the country for employer-sponsored health insurance in 2000-2001 but 15th in 2009-2010.

– Judy Putnam

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