Study: Three out of four low-wage workers lack access to employer coverage

Only 26 percent of low-wage workers got health insurance through their employer in 2010, according to a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research and Georgetown University. Low-wage workers are identified as people in the bottom 20 percent of hourly wages. 

The report found that government coverage has not kept pace with the drop in private coverage as healthcare costs have exploded over the past three decades. While 16 percent of low-wage workers were uninsured in 1979, the rate had jumped to 39 percent by 2010; that year, only 13 percent of low-wage workers had some form of public coverage — including Medicaid.

The report goes on to argue that things will only get worse if the healthcare reform law — the Affordable Care Act — is repealed.

"If the ACA is blocked — in the courts or in Congress – there is every indication that coverage rates for low-wage workers will continue their long, steady decline."