Study Offers Details on Uninsured Workers

September 13, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - An upcoming study by the Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) provides details on America's uninsured, 83% of whom live in families headed by workers.

An EBRI release provides these findings from the study:

  • Workers in agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining and construction were more likely to be uninsured (36%) than workers in the service sector (23.2%), wholesale and retail trade (19.1%), and manufacturing (14.4%).
  • Nearly 63% of all uninsured workers were self-employed or working in private-sector firms with fewer than 100 employees in 2004.
  • In 2004, 35.4% of the uninsured were in families with annual incomes of less than $20,000. Nearly 41% of individuals with incomes of less than $5,000 were uninsured, compared with about 9% of those in families with incomes of $50,000 or more.
  • Individuals of Hispanic origin were more likely to be uninsured (34.3%) than other groups. This may be due in part to the fact that nearly 53% of the Hispanic population reported income of less than 200% of the federal poverty level.

The full study will be published in the November 2005 EBRI Issue Brief, “Sources of Health Insurance and Characteristics of the Uninsured:Analysis of the March 2005 Current Population Survey,” according to the news release. The report will be available on www.ebri.org .

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