Overall, the proportion of the population covered by employer-provided health insurance has held steady since 1993. But fewer employees of small firms are being covered.

• In 1987, employers insured 69 percent of the nonelderly population -- but by 1993 that level had dropped to 64 percent, where it has remained ever since.

• Meanwhile, only 39 percent of small businesses offer health insurance coverage to their employees, compared with 46 percent just two years ago, according to a Dun & Bradstreet survey.

• The share of the U.S. population with no health insurance rose from 15.6 percent in 1996 to 16.1 percent last year, an increase of 1.7 million, according to Census Bureau figures.

• Employers are shelling out an average of $1.13 an hour on employees' health care, the Economic Policy Institute estimates.

Workers paid an average of $120 a month for family coverage last year. That represents a decline of 5 percent from 1992, after adjusting for medical inflation, according to KPMG Peat Marwick.

Sources: Aaron Bernstein, "The Health Care Net Is Shrinking," and Gene Koretz, "The Widening Health Care Gap," both Business Week, October 12, 1998.