Decade of Decline: The Erosion of Employer-Provided Health Care in the United States and California, 1995-2006

It is widely recognized that the means through which most working-age Americans receive health care coverage--the employer-based system--is undergoing fundamental change (Gould 2007). Though a majority of workers and their families are still covered through employers, a variety of factors, most prominently increased costs, have led to a steady slide in coverage. This decline has occurred in good economic times and bad, implying a structural, as opposed to cyclical, shift. This report examines what role changes in the composition of employment have played in this decline.