More Enrolled in Employer-Based Health Plans, But ‘Independent Workers’ Face Difficulties Obtaining Coverage, Studies Find

A report released Tuesday by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that a rising number of adults enrolled in employer-based health insurance plans in 1998 and 1999 despite "soar[ing]" health insurance premiums, the Dallas Morning News reports. The report found that the percentage of working American adults enrolling in employer-based insurance plans rose to 73.3% in 1999, up from 72.2% in 1994. Paul Fronstin, the author of the report, attributed the trend to "tight" unemployment rates -- 4.5% across the nation -- and an increase in small businesses that offer health coverage. "Even [many of] the smallest of the small firms" offered health insurance, hoping to attract and retain employees and to "kee[p] them healthy and productive," the report found. According to the report, the percentage of small businesses that offered health benefits rose to 67% in 2000, up from 54% in 1998. Because unemployment is still low, "[e]mployers still don't have a lot of wiggle room to raise [insurance] rates," Fronstin said, but he added that employees will likely "see premium increases when they sign up for health care this fall." He predicted that workers will have to "pick up a portion of any rate increase" through higher co-payments and premiums. Since 1996, the employee share of the overall health care premium has dropped to 14% from 21%, Fronstin said (Conklin, Dallas Morning News, 5/30). To read the report's executive summary, click here.

Independent Issues
Meanwhile, a study released this week by Working Today revealed that independent workers -- including such "non-traditional, short-term" workers as those in "the dot-com sector" -- have found "it difficult to get health insurance," NPR's "All Things Considered" reports. The study of independent workers in the New York City area found that 30% lack health insurance, and that among those with coverage, only 8% have employer-based insurance. Sara Horowitz, executive director of Working Today, a not-for-profit group that represents independent workers, said, "What this really shows is that ... for this part of the work force, you could almost say that employer coverage is almost irrelevant." Horowitz said that "things changed for the worse" for independent workers in the recent economic downturn, which has had a "direct impact on their choices about health insurance." She added, "The real difference is that before when the market was doing so well, people could really move from job to job and project to project knowing that they were going to be able to earn enough money to, in effect, just buy health insurance and buy the piece of their safety net. But as the economy is slower, it's clear that people are making a different calculation because they're worried economically, and therefore, they're just going without." To help address the problem, advocates for independent workers have called for universal health insurance, but they also have urged fraternal organizations, unions and newly formed worker associations to provide group health coverage for independent workers. However, according to NPR, "That's no small order ... since nearly a third of American workers today are part of this independent work force" (Molpus, NPR, "All Things Considered, 5/28). To listen to the NPR report, go to http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/atc/20010528.atc.06.ram. Note: You must have Real Player Audio to listen to the report.