Abstract

There is no universal provider of health insurance or health care in the United States. Rather, a patchwork system of institutions exists, each covering different subgroups of the population. Certain types of health insurance are provided as a condition of employment, while other types of health insurance are more readily available when individuals are not employed or not fully employed, and still others are available regardless of employment status. The two most significant sources of health insurance coverage in the United States are employers, who collectively insure 63 percent of the non-elderly (below age 65) population, and governments, who collectively cover 16.8 percent of the non-elderly population. Other types of insurance, such as individually purchased policies, or coverage obtained through an educational institution or other organization, provide the remaining 6.7 percent of the non-elderly population with health insurance coverage. However, a nontrivial fraction of the population, 17.7 percent or 44.7 million individuals, is uninsured.

Original Publication Citation

“The U.S. Health Care System and Labor Markets.” 2007. In Jane Sneddon Little, editor, Wanting It All: The Challenge of Reforming the U.S. Health Care System, Boston: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 137-163. http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/conf/conf50/conf50e.pdf