There was a slight decline in the percentage of Americans without health insurance last year, the Census Bureau reported today, but private sector coverage continued its decades-long slide.

The population survey (90 percent likelihood of being accurate) showed the number of Americans without health coverage fell to 15.3 percent in 2007, down a half percentage point from the year before. But those families covered by government agencies (Medicare, Medicaid and the military) rose to 27.8 percent of the population, up from 27.0 percent, while those covered by private health insurance fell to 67.5 percent, down from 67.9 percent in 2006.

The decline in private insurance affected both employer-provided coverage and the individual market. Employers covered 59.3 percent of the population in 2007, down 0.4 percentage points from the previous year and down from 64.2 percent in 2000.

Individually-purchased insurance also fell, dropping to 8.9 percent of the market from 9.1 percent in 2006. In 1994, the first year the Census Bureau began tracking the individual market, 12 percent of households bought coverage that way, and it has fallen fairly steadily as a ratio of the total ever since.

Indeed, private sector coverage has fallen almost every year since the Census Bureau began tracking these statistics. In 1987, fully three-quarters of Americans got their health care coverage from private insurers.

Bottom line: The employer-based insurance system continues to erode; the individual insurance market isn't picking up the slack; and to the extent the erosion of health coverage abated last year at the peak of this economic cycle, it was entirely due to government programs.