Health Insurance Enrollment Rates Down at Large Companies

AHRQ News and Numbers

Release date: August 24, 2006

The percentage of employees at large companies who were eligible for health insurance and who enrolled in plans fell from 87 percent in 1996 to 80 percent in 2004, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

• The steepest decline occurred among employees of large retail firms—from 81.5 percent to 69 percent.
• Enrollment of eligible workers in other types of large, private-sector firms also declined, but more modestly.
• For example, enrollment of eligible wholesale trade workers slipped from 92 percent to 86 percent, and construction worker enrollment declined from 87 percent to 82 percent.

This AHRQ News and Numbers is based on statistics in AHRQ's Medical Expenditure Panel Survey tables from the Establishment Survey of Employer-Based Health Insurance at http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/survey_comp/Insurance.jsp. MEPS is the Nation's most complete survey of how Americans use and pay for health care.

AHRQ, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, works to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care in the United States.

For more information, or to speak with an AHRQ data expert, please contact Bob Isquith at Bob.Isquith@ahrq.hhs.gov or call (301) 427-1539.

Current as of August 2006.

Internet Citation:

Health Insurance Enrollment Rates Down at Large Companies. AHRQ News and Numbers, August 24, 2006. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/nn/nn082406.htm