Nearly One in Five U.S. Workers Is Uninsured

According to a recent study, one in five U.S. workers is uninsured. This shows a dramatic decrease in insured workers when compared to mid-1990s totals when only one in seven workers weren’t covered by health insurance.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study was led by Lynn Blewett, director of the State Health Access Data Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota, which conducted the research. According to the report, recent numbers show that the 26.9 million U.S. workers was about six million more than the 20.7 million uninsured workers in the mid-1990s. The trend began to increase more dramatically in the past few years, as health care costs have escalated.

Researchers also found a dramatic increase in the working-age population without insurance - 20% - compared with ten years previous. Increased costs, especially premiums for employer-sponsored plans, which have increased six to eight times faster than wages, have placed pressures on employers as well as employees that contribute to their own coverage.

The working class appears to be hardest hit by these factors, as the study also found that nearly all U.S. retirees and nearly 90% of children have health coverage. Medicare, Medicaid as well as SCHIP programs have helped to stabilize these demographics.

Read the Report: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation