The percentage of employees with health insurance coverage provided by their employers declined nearly 4 percentage points between 2001 and 2005, according to reports released on Oct. 19 by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Almost half of the decrease from 81.2 percent to 77.4 resulted from employers dropping their sponsorship of health plans, while one-fourth was a product of workers declining health coverage that their employers offered to them. The rest resulted from employees or their dependents losing their eligibility for benefits.

The number of uninsured workers increased by 3.4 million over the four-year period to a total of 19 million, or 17 percent of all employees.

• New Reports Analyze Latest Data on Health Coverage, Examine the Decline in Employer-Sponsored Coverage