Health Insurance and Less Skilled Workers

We began this research with the belief that low and declining levels of private-employer sponsored health insurance were a continuing problem, especially among less skilled workers. But, our analysis paints a more complex picture. Using data from the March CPS, the SIPP, and the CPS benefits surveys, we find that while many less skilled workers remain uncovered, the decline in private employer-sponsored health insurance coverage has slowed recently, and may even have reversed. Neither crowdout, nor a deterioration in the quality of jobs available to the less skilled seems likely to fully explain these time-series trends in health insurance coverage. A simple explanation that has been largely overlooked is that rising health care costs have driven much of the reduction in private health insurance coverage, but it is difficult to test this hypothesis given the available data.