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Fewer employees worked for a firm that offers health insurance in 2014 and that insurance cost them more with higher deductibles, especially for family coverage plans, according to an annual report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. “Continuing a trend that began in 2008, the percentage of employees working in an establishment where insurance was offered fell from 84.9 percent in 2013 to 83.2 percent in 2014, a decline of 1.7 percentage points,” said the report, the agency’s annual insurance component of its Medicare Expenditure Panel. Results are based on responses from 39,000 firms nationwide. (White, 8/17)

More than 55,000 Georgians signed up for health insurance exchange coverage during a “special” four-month period through the end of June. This period came after regular open enrollment ended in February. (Miller, 8/17)