The percentage of Americans who obtain their healthcare insurance from their employers continues to drop, reaching just 44.6 percent in February, according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. The drop has been steady from early 2008, when the percentage of Americans with employer-based coverage was at 50 percent.
Meanwhile, the proportion of Americans with some form of government-sponsored healthcare insurance continues to rise, climbing to 25.7 percent last month. That's compared to just 22.5 percent three years ago.
The poll's researchers noted that the percentage of those enrolled in government plans has risen among all age groups, "suggesting that unemployment rather than aging baby boomers is contributing more to the uptick in the number of Americans with government healthcare."
The percentage of Americans who lack health insurance stood at 16.3 percent in February, a number that has held steady over the past two years. It rose significantly after the Great Recession began in December 2007.
The poll is based on a survey of 27,213 adults queried by telephone between Feb. 1 and Feb. 28.
For more:
- read the UPI article
- read the Gallup-Healthways survey