Explaining the decline in health insurance coverage among young men.

This article examines the experience of cohorts of young American men to see how and why their employer-provided health insurance coverage has changed over time. It explores changes in the structure of the labor market, changes in the cost of employer-provided health insurance, and changes in the composition of wages and benefits offered to employees. We find that increases in the cost of health insurance rather than changes in the structure of the labor market are the principal cause of the observed decline in employer-provided health insurance coverage across all cohorts.