You asked a series of questions about employer-sponsored health insurance in Connecticut. Below are the questions and answers. In some cases data were not available to answer your exact question. Instead, we provided an answer based on the best available information. When reliable information was found from more than one source, we presented both.

The most recent Connecticut Department of Labor (DOL) data shows that for December 2005 non-farm employment was 1,675,300 jobs.

ESI is the most common means for Connecticut residents to obtain health insurance. We address the question of how many state residents obtain ESI in two ways: (1) the number of employees covered by their own employers, and (2) the number of state residents covered by an employer plan including spouses and dependents of employees.

A November 2005 Office of Health Care Access (OHCA) issue brief estimates that 54% of the state's private-sector employees are enrolled in their own employers' health insurance plan (Eroding Private-Sector Employer Sponsored Health Insurance and Rising Costs). Its estimate is based on 2003 federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) data.

OHCA found that 64% of residents are covered by employment-based plans (2004 Household Survey of Connecticut's Health Insurance Coverage); this was down from 66% in OHCA's 2001 study. The Kaiser Family Foundation states that 61% of the state residents received coverage from employer plans in 2003-2004 (compared to 54% for the nation). Both OHCA and Kaiser's surveys include (1) spouses and dependents covered by an employee's plan and (2) public sector employers, who are more likely to provide health coverage.

The Kaiser Foundation Statehealthfacts. org provides an additional breakdown for the nonelderly with employer coverage, see Table 1 below.

Table 1: Connecticut: Nonelderly with Employer Coverage by Age

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation, Statehealthfacts. org (states, 2003-2004)

Chart 1 shows Connecticut private-sector employers with 300 or fewer employees broken into three groups and the percentage of each that provides employee health coverage. It shows that the larger the firm the more likely it offers ESI. The data comes from OHCA's 2004 Small Employer Survey.

Chart 1: Firms Offering Health Coverage by Size

(number of employees) 2004

Chart 2 shows the percentage of employees enrolled in employer plans by the size of the employer. This shows that the larger the employer, the more likely it is that employees will be enrolled in ESI. This data from OHCA's 2004 Household Survey includes private- and public-sector employers.

Chart 2: Employees Enrolled in Employer's Coverage by Firm Size (number of employees), 2004

Chart 3 shows the percentage of employers offering ESI by major industry sectors. The categories are: (1) retail/service, (2) construction/agriculture, (3) professional/other, and (4) manufacturing. The chart shows manufacturing has the highest percentage of employers offering ESI, while the combined retail/service group has the lowest.

The federal AHRQ combines retail and service job data into one category so OHCA was not able to break those two groups apart, according to Michael Sabados of OHCA. He noted that retail typically has a very low percent of ESI and what is considered the service industry is so broad, from financial services to food services, that combining retail and service makes a unwieldy category.

Chart 3: Establishments Offering Employer-Sponsored Insurance, 2003

The best available ESI numbers are provided in the above charts. The number employed and their salaries are shown below, extracted from Connecticut Department of Labor (DOL) data for the first quarter of 2005 (the most recent available). There are no available data that show the number of people employed in an occupation group, their pay, and whether they receive ESI.

Table 2: Selected Occupations Groups - Number Employed, Entry Level Wage,

Mid-Wage, and Average Wage

We could not find such a detailed breakdown by occupation or occupation group. But the Kaiser Family Foundation provides a breakdown that captures most of this question, see Table 3.

Table 3: Connecticut Health Insurance Coverage of the Total Population (States, 2003-2004)

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation, Statehealthfacts. org

OHCA has just issued a new report on the state's HUSKY health insurance program. The report examines the HUSKY population from a number of perspectives including how many working heads of HUSKY families report that their employers offer health insurance, how many such families are enrolled in ESI, and factors affecting working HUSKY family enrollment in ESI. A copy of the report is enclosed as Attachment A (the web link to the report is: www. ct. gov/ohca/lib/ohca/husky_databook_final. pdf.

The data sources for this report and their methodologies can be found at the following web sites:

• CT DOL, Labor Situation, December 2005, www. ctdol. state. ct. us/lmi/laborsit. htm;

• CT DOL, Labor Market Information, Occupational Employment & Wages, All Industry Estimates, www. ctdol. state. ct. us/lmi/internet/toc000. htm

• OHCA, Eroding Private-Sector Employer Sponsored Health Insurance and Rising Costs, November 2005 Issue Brief, Connecticut's Health Insurance Coverage, Results of the OHCA 2004 Household Survey, and 2004 Small Employer Survey Findings Fact Sheet, can all be found on the OHCA publications web page, www. ct. gov/ohca/taxonomy/ct_taxonomy. asp?DLN=42041& ohcaNav=|42041|; and

• Kaiser Family Foundation Statehealthfacts. org, www. statehealthfacts. org/cgi-bin/healthfacts. cgi.

JM: dw