Engebretson, MarkJulie Sonier2023-10-192023-10-192011-10-07https://hdl.handle.net/11299/257660Runtime 1:30 minutesThis resource is provided for informational purposes only and may not reflect current scientific knowledge or medical recommendations.Welcome to Public Health Moment from the University of Minnesota. The number of working-age Americans who do not have employer-sponsored health insurance has declined by 8 percent 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. SHADAC's Julie Sonier explains why Minnesota experienced such a drop. <Sonier: "Minnesota was one of 12 states nationally that experienced a decline in employer-sponsored insurance of 10 percentage points or more. But in Minnesota we think that a key part of this story is really an economic story. So, we had a pretty substantial shift in the last decade in the income distribution of our population. So, we have a lot more people who are earning in 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.”> Sonier 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. <Sonier: “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.”>enAudio