November 07, 2015
The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey – Insurance Component (MEPS-IC), sponsored by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is a survey of private and public sector employers that focuses on employer-sponsored insurance.
In order to support state policy analysis related to health reform, SHADAC annually requests special firm-size tabulations of the estimates (e.g. estimates for firms with 0-50 and 50-99 employees). These tabulations provide estimates of employer offer and take-up, premiums, and cost-sharing (i.e., deductibles) for:
- All firms together.
- Firms with fewer than 50 employees,
- Firms with 50 to 99 employees,
- Firms with 100 to 249 employees (beginning in 2013)*
- Firms with 250 or more employees (beginning in 2013)*
To help make this information easily accessible for states, SHADAC has created three sets of tables (separate tables by firm size for each state). These include:
- Availability and enrollment in ESI
- Premiums and employee contributions for ESI
- Enrollee cost sharing for ESI**
* For years before 2013, the largest firm size category provided is firms with 100 or more employees.
** The enrollee cost sharing tables for 2006, 2008, and 2009 have been revised slightly. For each year, the last estimate in these tables (% of private sector employees enrolled in a health insurance plan that had an individual deductible of $x,xxx or more and a family deductible of $x,xxx or more) is based on the minimum plan deductible criteria set by the IRS for that year for HSA-qualified plans (previously, the tables for all years used the 2009 criteria). Additionally, the denominator used in calculating the last estimate in these tables has been corrected to include all plans (including those without a deductible).
These are unpublished estimates from the 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 MEPS-IC surveys. Some have large standard errors, and users should be careful to use the estimates appropriately. Any estimate with a relative standard error greater than or equal to 30% does not meet the MEPS-IC standard for publication. In SHADAC’s summary tables, estimates with a relative standard error greater than or equal to 30% are marked with an asterisk.
Updated November 2015.