New EBRI Research: Non-Elderly Insured Hit Post 1987 Low in 2002 Despite Growth in Public Programs

12/19/2003

From: Jim Jaffe, 202-775-6353 or jaffe@ebri.org; Paul Fronstin, 202-775-6352 or fronstin@ebri.org both of the Employee Benefit Research Institute

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 -- The number of non- elderly Americans lacking health insurance grew to 43.3 million in 2002, an increase of 13.3 million since 1987, according to a new analysis by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

The uninsured population has growing in all but three years since 1987, according to the December EBRI Issue Brief. Increasing health insurance premiums are seen as a major cause of this trend.

During the 1987-2002 period, the percentage of Americans with employment-based coverage dropped while the group with public coverage grew. The group with individually-purchased coverage was 6.7 percent in 2002, down from 7.7 percent in 1993, but the number of people with such coverage rose by 1.8 million.

The data reflect several trends. Employment-based coverage dropped in the 1987-1993 period and since 2000 because of rapidly escalating premium cost. By contrast, public programs declined during the late 1990s because the combination of an economic growth and welfare reform.

The increase in the uninsured population appears independent of the economic cycle," said EBRI President and CEO Dallas Salisbury, "and there's no broadly-supported remedy at hand to reverse this trend."