High Cost of Insurance Leading Some Healthy People To Opt Out of Employer-Sponsored Coverage

The rising cost of health insurance premiums is causing some healthy young professionals and families to opt out of employer-sponsored health insurance, especially plans offered by small businesses, which often are forced to "pass... along" to employees a share of rate increases, the Business Journal of Jacksonville reports. Dr. J. Brooks Brown, founder of Memorial Health System and Brooks Health System, said, "As the cost of insurance goes up and up and you're a 30-year-old individual paying anywhere from $500 to $700 a month in an employer-sponsored program, you might start thinking, 'Heck, I'm not sick and I don't need insurance.'" Health plan costs increase even further when healthy employees drop out of a group plan, leaving a pool of employees with more risk, Brown said. He added that care providers believe that people who opt out of employer plans end up using emergency rooms if they become sick. Some experts believe that employees who turn down work-sponsored health insurance find "more affordable" health insurance plans on their own, but Mohit Ghose, the American Association of Health Plans' deputy director of public affairs, said that the "trend" in the last few years has been for such employees to opt out of health insurance entirely. Brian Klepper, executive director of the Center for Practical Health Reform and a health care consultant, said, "We're not sure what the impact is -- whether rate increases are directly proportionate to the number of uninsured. That information is tracked through census data through emergency room data, and it looks like it bumped up the number of uninsured." Mark Wright, a senior public relations consultant for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, said that defined contribution plans, under which employers give employees a set amount of money to purchase their own health care, could be a possible solution to the problem. He added, "Employees will be taking more responsibility in the choice and payment of the plan. If a prescription costs a lot more than $5 then you might ask if you really need this prescription or if a generic will do" (Goudreau, Business Journal of Jacksonville, 8/2).