Survey shows decline in percentage of Americans getting coverage through private employers.
August 3, 2004: 6:48 AM EDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Americans with health insurance financed by private employers fell in 2003, compared with two years earlier, a survey released Tuesday revealed.

Roughly 63 percent of Americans under the age of 65 got health coverage through their employers in 2003, down from 67 percent in 2001, according to the Center for Studying Health System Change survey.

The center is a nonpartisan research group funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Expansion of publicly financed health insurance like Medicaid staved off a correspondingly big hike in the rolls of the uninsured during the period, the study said.

"The long term trends of declining employer coverage and increasing uninsurance will likely continue," said Paul Ginsburg,