AHRQ Stats: Private-Sector Health Coverage

The percentage of private-sector workers who enrolled in a health insurance plan at employers that offered coverage remained stable between 2013 and 2014, at about 58 percent in each year. While the percentage of workers eligible for coverage declined from 78 percent in 2013 to 75 percent in 2014, the percentage of eligible workers enrolling for coverage increased from 75 percent in 2013 to 77 percent in 2014. (Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistical Brief #477: Results from the 2014 MEPS-IC Private-Sector National Tables.)

STATISTICAL BRIEF #477:
Results from the 2014 MEPS-IC Private-Sector National Tables

July 2015

Jessica Vistnes, PhD, Karen Davis, MA and G. Edward Miller, PhD

Highlights

The number of employees who enrolled in a health insurance plan through their private-sector employer was stable between 2013 (56.3 million) and 2014 (55.8 million).
The percentage of employees working at an establishment that offered insurance declined by 2.4 percentage points from 2013 to 2014, which was not significantly different from the average annual decline of 1.8 percentage points from 2008 to 2011.
The percentage of employees enrolled in coverage at establishments that offered insurance (the coverage rate) remained stable between 2013 and 2014 for all employers (57.8 percent) and for small (56.8 percent) and large (58.0 percent) employers. The coverage rate was stable at small employers because the eligibility and take-up rates were stable during this one-year period. At large employers, however, the coverage rate was stable because an increase in the take-up rate offset a decrease in the eligibility rate.
The growth rate for single premiums from 2013 to 2014 (4.7 percent) was significantly lower than the rate of growth from 2008 to 2009, but not significantly different from growth rates over any other one-year period from 2009-2013. Family premiums increased by 3.9 percent from 2013 to 2014, which did not differ from the growth rate in 2012 to 2013, but was lower than the growth rates in 2008-2009 (5.9 percent), 2009-2010 (6.5 percent) and 2010-2011 (8.3 percent).
The percentage of employees enrolled in a plan with a deductible, as well as the average size of both individual and family deductibles increased from 2013 to 2014, following a pattern of increases observed in most years from 2008 to 2013.