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Changes in employees' health insurance coverage, 2001-2005
Changes in employees' health insurance coverage, 2001-2005
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Issue paper (Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured)
- Author(s):
- Clemans-Cope, Lisa, author
Garrett, Bowen, author
Hoffman, Catherine, author - Contributor(s):
- Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, issuing body.
Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, issuing body. - Publication:
- Washington, DC : Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, October 2006
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Health Benefit Plans, Employee -- trends
Insurance Coverage -- trends
United States - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- The majority of Americans under age 65 receive their health insurance coverage through their own employer or the employer of a family member, but the long-standing link between work and employer-sponsored insurance is weakening. Because employer-sponsored insurance is voluntary on the part of businesses and employees, not all firms offer health benefits, not all workers are eligible for coverage, and not all employees choose to participate or can afford their share of the health premium. Employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) coverage rates have been falling. In 2000, 66% of non-elderly Americans were insured through the workplace, but by 2004 only 61% were covered by ESI. Both children and adults experienced steady declines in job-based coverage through this period; however, all of the growth in the number of uninsured was among adults. Were it not for Medicaid and S-CHIP, the number of children without health insurance would have increased also. Instead, as unemployment spells lowered families’ incomes, public insurance filled in the gap for children up until 2004, but not adults. By 2005 however, as employer-sponsored insurance continued to erode, the number of low-income uninsured children began to grow again, along with the number of uninsured adults. This issue brief focuses primarily on how ESI coverage has changed among employees (i.e., workers who are not self-employed). Based on a larger report entitled, Changes in Employer Sponsored Health Insurance Sponsorship, Eligibility, and Participation: 2001 to 2005, it begins with a brief description of major forces driving employer-sponsored insurance: changes in the workforce and the rising costs of health insurance over the four year period. Next it examines the decline in ESI among employees and the underlying reasons determining whether or not an employee has ESI, specifically: (1) whether the employer sponsors health benefits, (2) if the employee is eligible for the benefits, (3) whether the employee chooses to participate in the health insurance offering, and (4) whether the employee chooses to participate in other ESI available through another family member’s job. The issue brief concludes by identifying which groups were hardest hit by the decline in job-based coverage and how the reasons for the decline in ESI varied across different groups of employees.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (15 pages))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101290896 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101290896