New Publications and Internet Sites, p. 9

• Coverage rates: Union workers are much more likely to have employment-based health benefits than nonunion workers. In September 2003, 86 percent of union workers were covered by health benefits through their own job, compared with 59.5 percent of nonunion workers. Overall, 95.4 percent of union workers had employment-based health benefits, compared with 77.8 percent of nonunion workers. • Uninsured: Although union workers were less likely than nonunion workers to have employmentbased coverage as a dependent (9.4 percent and 18.3 percent, respectively), union workers were much less likely to be uninsured. Only 2.5 percent of union workers were uninsured in September 2003, compared with 15 percent of nonunion workers. • Erosion: As union workers account for a declining share of the working population, further erosion of unionization is likely to coincide with an overall erosion in the percentage of workers with employment-based health benefits. But if the decline in unionization is concentrated in the private sector, the percentage of union workers with health benefits may increase because union workers would be increasingly employed by the public sector. The Basics of Social Security, Updated With the 2005 Trustees Repor