A new study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reveals that the percentage of workers who accepted their employer’s offer of healthcare insurance dropped from 85.3 percent in 1998 to 80.3 percent in 2003. The drop means that 3 million fewer workers who are eligible for employer-sponsored health coverage elected to enroll in it over that period. Over the same period, insurance premiums increased by 42 percent (from $2,454 in 1998 dollars adjusted for inflation to $3,481 in 2003).
According to the study, which was released in connection with the Cover the Uninsured Week sponsored by the Foundation, in both 1998 and 2003 the average employee paid approximately 18 percent of the annual premium for individual coverage—the employer paid the remaining 82 percent.
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