Welcome  to  public  health  moment from  the  University  of  Minnesota. The  number  of  working  age  Americans  who  do  not  have employer  sponsored  health  insurance declined  by  8%  over  the  last  decade. With  7.3  million  fewer  Americans  having employer  coverage  in  2009  compared  to  1999. But  the  decline  is  even  greater  in  Minnesota. That's  according  to  a  recent  report  by the  University  of  Minnesota's  State Health  Access  Data  Assistance  Center had  a  Julie  Sonar  explains why  Minnesota  experienced  such  a  drop. Minnesota  was  one  of  12  states nationally  that  experienced a  decline  in  employer  sponsored insurance  of  ten  percentage  points  or  more. But  in  Minnesota,  we  think  a  key  part  of the  story  is  really  an  economic  story. So  we  had  a  pretty  substantial  shift  in the  past  decade  in  the  income distribution  of  our  population. So  we  have  a  lot  more  people  who  are  earning the  low  wage  category  than we  did  at  the  beginning  of  the  decade. People  in  low  wage  jobs  are  much  less likely  to  have  access  to  employer  insurance. Sony  said  that  the  intent  of  the  study  was  to provide  states  with  information about  the  differences  in  coverage. As  state  lawmakers  consider  changes  in  health  policy. One  of  the  things  that  we  were really  trying  to  shine  a  light on  was  all  of  this  variation  across  states. And  to  really  encourage the  continued  measurement  and tracking  of  these  trends  at  the  state  level  so that  state  policymakers  have the  information  that  they  need about  what's  going  on  in  their  state  when it  comes  time  to  make  key  decisions.