Fewer Employers Offer Coverage To Employees

Fewer employers are offering health coverage to their employees, and the coverage they do offer is less comprehensive than in the past. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey of employer sponsored health plans shows that the percentage of employers offering health coverage has dropped from 69% in 2000 to 60% this year. Additionally, employees are responsible for a greater share of out-of-pocket health costs.

According to the USAToday, concerns about the stability of job-based health coverage have led policy experts to begin exploring the possibility of changing, or even discontinuing, the relationship between employment and healthcare. However, employers are not quite ready to give up on offering health coverage entirely, as it is an effective means of competing for better workers. Furthermore, employees are becoming increasingly anxious about how they will obtain their healthcare if their employer discontinues the benefit or if they can no longer afford the premium deduction or out-of-pocket costs. The debate over whether health coverage should be linked to employment will continue in the health policy arena, especially as 2008 Presidential campaigns move forward.