Fewer Employers Offering Health Benefits To Workers: Survey

Fewer companies are getting health insurance benefits to employees, leaving more workers to fend for themselves as health care costs continue to rise.

Jobs are the number-one source of health insurance coverage for Americans, but fewer employers are offering health benefits to their workers and more employees are becoming uninsured, a new survey shows.

In 2010, 67.5 percent of U.S. workers had jobs that included health benefits, down from 70.1 percent in 1997, the Employee Benefit Research Institute reports. The high cost of health insurance and other factors also led to a greater share of employees turning down health benefits even when available, the report says. Two years ago, 83.6 percent of workers who were offered benefits signed up for company health insurance compared to 86 percent in 1997, the report says. (h/t The Hill.)

Rising health care costs are making health insurance too costly for employers and workers alike. President Barack Obama's health care reform law aims to stabilize the market for employer-based health insurance by levying financial penalties against companies that don't offer coverage, but the Congressional Budget Office predicts some firms will drop the benefits anyway. Nevertheless, jobs will remain the main way Americans get health insurance and the number of Americans covered through work will rise from 154 million this year to 161 million by 2022, according to the CBO.

Some workers will have to move to other forms of health insurance, according to the CBO. Most will find alternative coverage elsewhere that may be subsidized by the federal government -- unlike in the current health insurance marketplace -- unless the Supreme Court repeals the health care reform law when it issues a decision by the end of June.

More than 30 million uninsured Americans will obtain coverage from private health insurance through regulated and subsidized "exchanges" or from Medicaid, if the health care law isn't overturned. Fourteen million people who otherwise would have gotten insurance at work will lose those benefits and three million will become uninsured, the CBO projects.

Comments

[OutAtFirst]

02:10 PM on 04/27/2012

Employer-based medical insurance is just such an irrational concept to begin with. Any fifth-grader could point out the inherent problems.

[nothingchanges]

11:15 AM on 04/26/2012

IMPO...It really makes little sense for employers to be the source of health insurance in the first place.

Lost your job, sorry about that, don't get sick or injured because you lost your health insurance as well.

What incentive exists for your employer to buy you the best insurance available? His (or her) primary incentive is to buy the cheapest. Cheapest is rarely the best.

Over 60% of Bankruptcies in the U.S. are over a medical condition. Over 75% of those that have to declare "medical bankruptcy" HAVE health insurance.

This is a problem, one that President Obama at least attempted to address and has earned him much derision for.

I still believe that the best solution would have been to open medicare to anyone who wants to opt in. It would make insurance available to all, and lower the cost per person substantially, as well as assure the future of medicare for as long as Americans continue to have babies.

It's just too bad so many lies are being told about Health care reform.

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts." -Abraham Lincoln

[acmeracing]

11:40 PM on 06/28/2012

Where did you get the idea that over 60% of bankruptcies are due to medical conditions? I used to provide the mandatory credit counseling and debtor education required under BAPCPA, and most of my clients were going under because of credit card bills or borrowing/irresponsibly spending the equity in their houses during the housing bubble. Your numbers are about what Yahoo Finance quotes, but others quote vastly different figures: http://www.factcheck.org/2008/12/health-care-bill-bankruptcies/

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/02/what-causes-personal-bankruptcy/4683/#

[OldTulsan]

10:57 AM on 04/26/2012

Some employers are sending employees and their dependents outside the country for surgery and other procedure; e.g.:

http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/11/news/companies/health_care_medical_travel/index.htm
One way to cut health care costs? Outsource surgeries - Aug. 11, 2010

"NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Tina Follett and her husband Patrick are in Panama on a two-week all-expenses paid trip. But Tina isn't on vacation. She's there to get surgery..."

[Anne Rutherford]

08:32 PM on 04/26/2012

Yes, but if I had a hip replacement a week ago, I might not be comfortable with the idea of taking an 8 hour flight home. Who do you see if there is a problem?

[OldTulsan]

09:25 PM on 04/26/2012

Good question.

[Art As Social Inquiry]

10:25 AM on 04/26/2012

Small businesses account for over 90% of business in the US. As employer trends go in offering coverage, so goes our healthcare system. Collapse is imminent without intervention which ObamaCare is.

Offering insurance to employees through a group plan is OPTIONAL for employers. The for-profit insurance companies have squeezed so much out of the consumers (in this case, the employers), that employers are dropping it altogether if they can.

The insurance pool gets smaller and premiums rise even more.

The unsustainability of our current system is apparent on so many levels. Employers dropping group coverage is just one of them.

ObamaCare does shore up the private insurance companies by providing 30 million new customers. For that guaranteed business, ObamaCare also sets a ceiling and floor of protections for the consumers.

[AuthorBookshelf]

08:54 AM on 04/26/2012

Here's another reason for people to use other forms of medicine. Community acupuncture is a great resource. Most places charge between $20 and $40 per session. This has been a hot topic lately. In fact, there a great new thriller out called The God Complex that I highly recommend. A quick Google search for "God Complex acupuncture" should find it. It's a Da Vinci-style mystery/adventure in which you learn the basics of acupuncture (and its hidden connection to martial arts) as you solve the mystery. Definitely worth reading if you are thinking of going for acupuncture, or if you like a good read.

[pattithepolitico]

07:38 AM on 04/26/2012

or what they do offer is meaningless. my husband just took a new job and we won't even reach the deductibles for the year before the insurance starts paying. what can you do?

[Tahut]

07:03 AM on 04/26/2012

Employer health benefits have been shrinking way before now. I have first hand experience from 2000 ... the end of the Clinton Administration ... of austere employer benefit packages. Trouble is, employer health care packages are not the concern of Congress ... that's between the employer and employee. If you don't like what's offered you're free to go find another job or buy your own out-of-pocket policy ... which I did until I reached 50 and premiums tripled.

What's missing is a federal outline stating what health care and costs should be for the business industry to follow and insurers offer. The government could be the one to keep the health care insurance industry honest making sure those covered are receiving the necessary care they're paying for while keeping costs down. It would take the government running the industry like a public utility, but the industry has too strong of a lobbying arm and won't let Congress even think such heresy..

[OldTulsan]

11:09 AM on 04/26/2012

The Obama Deficit Commission considered ending the employer tax deductions for job-based health care.

This will surface again after the elections.

[Sartre01]

06:52 AM on 04/26/2012

They keep telling people that Medicare and social security is in danger, but it is this private health insurance scam that is about to collapse!

[lucien pmstar]

12:51 AM on 04/26/2012

new ?! true health benies ,(outside of the public sector and maybe silcon valley ), where things of distant ancient memories before america elected its second bush

[OldTulsan]

12:45 AM on 04/26/2012

The Deficit Commission considered the eliminatio­n of the employers' tax deduction for job-based health insurance:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/28/health-care-tax-break-deficit_n_788852.html
Job-Based Health Care Threatened

"WASHINGTO­N — Job-based health care benefits could wind up on the chopping block if President Barack Obama and congressio­nal Republican­s get serious about cutting the deficit.

Budget proposals from leaders in both parties have urged shrinking or eliminatin­g tax breaks that help make employer health insurance the leading source of coverage in the nation and a middle-cla­ss mainstay.

The idea isn't to just raise revenue, economists say, but finally to turn Americans into frugal health care consumers by having them face the full costs of their medical decisions.

[snip]

Repealing the tax break would raise several hundred billion dollars a year, depending on how it's done. Many economists believe employers would boost pay if they didn't provide health care..."

Anyone who thinks employers would boost pay to compensate is delusional­.

[Anne Rutherford]

08:16 PM on 04/26/2012

If anyone has looked at an estimate of benefits lately, you are paying a larger share of all your healthcare costs. Mine usually read something like: Dr. charges: 70, negotiated rate with insurance co: 35, my co-pay is $20. So that basically means that the doctor gets $55 and I paid $20, and the insurance company paid $35. Unless, of course you have a PPO that requires you to pay the first $200.00 of your care each year before they pay anything. So if this happened in January, you paid $55 and got $35 credit toward you dedictable for the year. Insurance company? They paid nothing. So, not only do you get less of a raise because the cost of your policy went up, you got to pay more each year, too. To me, this just means the system will collapse under it's own weight before much longer.

[OldTulsan]

09:24 PM on 04/26/2012

Very interesting.

Medicare is my primary carrier, with a "Medicare complimentary" policy that acts as my secondary carrier and also covers my wife and her kids that are here. That policy is an benefit from having worked for one of the Seven Sister oil companies for 25 years.

Wendell Potter wrote an article that stated the private health insurance carriers knew they were making themselves obsolete.

[libluv235]

12:45 AM on 04/26/2012

Repubs are hard at work trying to destroy this country. Sad.

[John Tutle]

09:53 PM on 04/25/2012

So this is what Pelosi menat when she said that ObamaCare had to be approved to find out what is in it.

Surprise!

And yet many of you lefties will still blame Republicans.

[libluv235]

12:48 AM on 04/26/2012

your version of reality is astounding. ObamCare has saved my family at least 200K. ALREADY. When will you realize that ObamaCare is already life and death and financial stability for millions of us who BUY insurance on the individual market. WAKE UP!!!

[Tahut]

07:05 AM on 04/26/2012

Better to enter a door into the unknown rather than stay in the room where the floor is rotting away under your weight

[axis53]

07:28 PM on 04/25/2012

That's what the "job creators" forgot to tell you - they don't do health insurance!

[T4]

07:06 PM on 04/25/2012

These HP writers always miss the point probably just because the Obama blinders are so large. If we had a competitive medical services delivery business model reg people could afford reasonable healthcare. Insurance is a price support to maintain an uncompetitive industry and stop them from reforming. We need to be looking for ways to break down reg barriers to care - AMA reform, liability reform, prescription reform, lowering labor costs by eliminating high cost low return positions, with new tech the need for the traditional image of a doctor is gone and we need to adjust our regs to understandthis and build new formulas for success thatwill actually help people

[AuthorBookshelf]

08:44 AM on 04/26/2012

Just want to add one point to your comments ... "Insurance is a price support" - so true! It does this by hiding the true cost from the consumer. Most employed/insured people only feel the pain when their co-pay goes up. Going from $25 to $35 or even $50 is still a small fraction of what these medical groups are billing the system.

In Japan, an MRI only costs $160 ... mandated by the gov't. Compare that with the U.S., we pay between $400 and $3,500 depending upon the procedure. The same is true with pharmaceuticals. The American consumer is indirectly subsidizing health care in other parts of the world. We make up the difference for what their gov'ts aren't willing to pay.

[themodernleader]

05:31 PM on 04/25/2012

In a money frenzied economy the workers are continued to be pressure to work at 150% capacity for less money and fewer benefits.  Supply sources are threatened because the demand dries up because the people have barely enough income to survive.  The nation become a serfdom.

[babyspittle]

06:32 PM on 04/25/2012

and yet, we're doing better than europe (who chose austerity)

[babyspittle]

06:32 PM on 04/25/2012

make that "more austerity"