U.S. civilian group health access and participation rates looked about the same in March as they did a year earlier, and two years earlier.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has included employer-sponsored medical plan data in a new collection of benefit plan statistics.
About 72 percent of all civilian workers had access to employer-sponsored health coverage in March, and about 74 percent of the workers who had access to health benefits took up the coverage, according to the BLS data.
The health benefits take-up rate figures were the same in 2014, as the major Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) commercial health insurance market changes were starting to take affect according to a comparison of the new data with 2014 data.
In 2013, before any of the major PPACA changes took effect, the overall health benefits access rate was 72 percent, and the take-up rate was 75 percent.