Fewer U.S. residents younger than age 65 had health insurance through an employer between 2005 and 2006 than between 2000 and 2001, largely because of cutbacks due to rising health care costs, according to a study released Wednesday by the Economic Policy Institute, the Newark Star-Ledger reports. From 2005 to 2006, 63.2% of U.S residents younger than 65 had employer-sponsored coverage, compared with 67.7% from 2000 to 2001 (Fitzgerald, Newark Star-Ledger, 11/1).

EPI economist Jacob Hacker said the decline stems from rising costs in a health care system "that is enormously wasteful, ill-targeted, inefficient and unfair." He added, "The best medical care is extremely good, but the Rube Goldberg system through which that care is financed is extremely bad -- and falling apart."

Elise Gould, another EPI economist, said, "The erosion of workers in the employer system into the public one in effect shifts the cost of employers insuring their workers onto taxpayers." Gould also said that "with the employer-based system clearly unraveling, it's critical that publicly provided coverage pick up the slack" (Thalman, Salt Lake City Deseret Morning News, 11/1).

Robert Meehan, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey vice president for consumer and senior markets, said the report "is not news, it's just more of the same" (Newark Star-Ledger, 11/1).

The report is available online.