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The percentage of Utah residents with employment-based health insurance fell during the past decade but remained among the best rates in the nation, and the number of Utahns with coverage actually increased, according to a Washington-based think tank.
The percentage of covered residents fell 3½ percentage points, to 70.1 percent in 2008-09, from 73.6 percent in 2000-01, the Economic Policy Institute said. By contrast, the U.S. percentage contracted by 7.2 percent.
The number of Utahns with employer coverage increased to 1.78 million in 2008-09 from 1.53 million in 2000-01. Nationally, Americans with employer insurance fell to 159.8 million from 167.2 million.
In Utah, the relatively mild decline in the coverage rate, coupled with rising numbers of insured residents, appears to reflect Utah's prosperity during most of the period. During that time, the state's population was growing nearly three times faster than the rest of the country.
"Although we did see declining coverage rates in Utah, it wasn't as large as what we saw as a nation as a whole, about half as large," said Elise Gould, director of health policy research at the institute.
Had Utah's coverage rate remained steady over the eight-year period, the number of residents with employer-based coverage would have been about 1.9 million, she said.
Back in 2000-01, 13 states had coverage rates better than Utah. Eight years later, only three states — New Hampshire (73.7 percent), Massachusetts (72.5 percent) and Connecticut (70.7 percent) — were better.
That Utah remained relatively well off was little comfort to Lincoln Nehring, a senior policy analyst at Voices for Utah Children in Salt Lake City.
"Although certain aspects of our health care are better, by no means are they perfect. To say things are better here than in the nation is doing a disservice to people in the state, particularly those who don't have health insurance," Nehring said.
Utah Insurance Commissioner Neal Gooch said the report's contents weren't surprising, in light of the fact that Utah fell into its worst downturn since the 1930s.
"The fact that employers are not offering insurance is affected by the recession and the increase in costs of providing health care," Gooch said in an e-mail.
Employer-based health insurance
Percentage of Utahns covered:
2000-01 • 73.6 percent
2008-09 • 70.1 percent
Number of Utahns covered:
2000-01 • 1.53 million
2008-09 • 1.78 million