The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) released a new report today which highlights the effects that that the economic recession has had on employee health benefits.  As you may have guessed, it ain’t pretty. 

Nationwide, the number of employees getting health insurance from their own employers dropped from 53.2% to 52%, mostly – but not entirely – due to the rate of unemployment.  This drop is noted as the sharpest single year decline in recent years.  They also found that there were disparities in the rate of insurance based on race.  Among Hispanic workers, the coverage rate was 36.9%.  This stands in stark contrast to the coverage rate among Black workers, at 51.9%, and White workers, who had the highest coverage rate at 55.2%. 

Click here to read the full EBRI report.

This is really just another reason why we need federal health reform to be implemented the right way – to make sure that  insurance is affordable for New Yorkers who don’t have the option of job-based coverage.