The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) is a set of large-scale surveys of families and individuals, their medical providers, and employers across the United States. MEPS is the most complete source of data on the cost and use of health care and health insurance coverage. Learn more about MEPS.

• The decline in having a usual source of medical care is concentrated among the uninsured; uninsured Americans were less likely to have a USC in 2006 (47 percent) compared to 1996 (58 percent). —From Statistical Brief 265: Trends in Access to Health Care: Disparities by Poverty Status and Health Insurance, 1996-2006



• From 1998 to 2008, where health care coverage was offered, the percentage of eligible employees who chose to enroll fell from 85.3 percent to 78.7 percent in the private sector.
  —From Statistical Brief 266: Trends in Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Offers and Enrollment, Private Sector by Firm Size, 1998-2008



• From 1996 to 2007 the number of non-elderly individuals with private non-group health insurance for the full year fell from 9.0 million to 6.6 million, and declined as a proportion of the population from 3.8 to 2.5 percent. —From Statistical Brief 267: Group and Non-Group Private Health Insurance Coverage, 1996 to 2007: Estimates for the U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population under Age 65