CHRT today released two briefs showing that for more than a decade, employers have been dropping health insurance and consumers have been paying more out-of-pocket for health care, a trend that began many years before the development of the Affordable Care Act. The research briefs also show Michigan’s employers are increasing employee cost-sharing and moving to high deductible health plans at a faster rate than the national average. According to the data, from 1999 to 2011, the proportion of individuals covered by employer-sponsored insurance decreased by approximately 15 percent nationwide. Between 2008 and 2011 specifically, the proportion of people with private health insurance (either through their employers or individually-purchased) fell 4.7 percent in Michigan and 4.4 percent nationwide.