New EBRI Analysis: Fewer Workers Have Health Insurance On The Job, EBRI Finds
WASHINGTON, DC -- Even though workers are just as likely to say their employer sponsors health insurance plan today as a decade ago, fewer workers are eligible for coverage from their employer's plan, according to a new report by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).
Eleven years ago, in 1988, virtually all workers whose employers sponsored a plan qualified for the plans, the EBRI analysis notes. But as of 1997, about 75 percent of American workers are offered health insurance through their jobs, and more than 60 percent of workers continue to receive health insurance through their jobs today. Overall, about 84 percent of American workers currently have some form of health insurance (including individual or other types of coverage), while 16 percent are uninsured.
The findings are reported in the September EBRI Issue Brief, which looks at who is offered employment-based health coverage vs. who takes it. The analysis notes that while the "sponsor rate" appears to be holding steady (the number of employees that work for an employer who sponsors a health plan), the "offer rate" is declining because of the growing use of part-time workers and workers in alternative work arrangements, such as temporary workers and independent contractors.
"While workers say their employers are just as likely to sponsor a health plan in 1988 and 1997, it appears that fewer workers qualify for those plans today," said Dallas Salisbury, EBRI president and CEO. Salisbury noted that because offer rates have fallen, so have coverage rates: In 1988, 68 percent of wage and salary workers were participating in an employment-based health plan provided by their own employer, but by 1997 that had fallen to 62 percent.
EBRI's September Issue Brief discusses how recent trends in employment-based health insurance affect different workers, depending on job characteristics and demographics, and what these trends may imply for the future of the uninsured population. Some of the report's key findings:
* In 1997, 83 percent of the 108.1 million wage and salary workers in the United States were employed by a firm that sponsored a health plan. Seventy-five percent of these workers were offered coverage, and 62 percent (or 67.5 million workers) were covered by that plan. Among the workers who worked for an employer that offered them a health plan, 83 percent participated in the plan.
* Sponsorship rates have barely changed in the last 11 years. In 1988, 82 percent of wage and salary workers reported that their employer sponsored a health plan. This declined slightly to 82 percent in 1993 but had increased to 83 percent by 1997.
* Offer rates significantly changed between 1988 and 1997. In 1988, 83 percent of workers reported that they were eligible for health insurance through their employer. By 1993, the percentage of eligible workers declined to 74 percent, and it has only slightly increased since then to 75 percent in 1997. This decline is attributed to the increased use of part-time workers and workers in alternative work arrangements such as temporary workers and independent contractors.
* In 1997, 40.6 million American workers did not have health insurance through their own job. Among these, 45 percent were employed at a firm where the employer did not provide health insurance to any workers; 33 percent were offered coverage but declined it; and 22 percent were employed in a firm that offered insurance to some of its workers, but certain workers were ineligible for it.
* Among the 13.7 million workers who were offered coverage but declined it, 61 percent said they were covered by another plan, and 20 percent reported that health insurance was too costly.
* Overall, 41 percent of the 40.6 million workers who were not participating in an employment-based health plan through their own employer had coverage through a spouse. However, 42 percent of the 40.6 million workers who declined their employers' health plan or who were not offered health insurance by their employer were uninsured.
Salisbury noted that as long as the employment-based health insurance system in the United States is voluntary, some workers will not have insurance protection, and policymakers will continue to struggle with how to increase coverage. "The challenge in designing any system to cover uninsured individuals is to avoid disrupting the current system, which covers nearly two-thirds of the nonelderly population," he said.
EBRI is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization based in Washington, DC. Founded in 1978, its mission is to contribute to, to encourage, and to enhance the development of sound employee benefit programs and sound public policy through objective research and education. EBRI does not lobby and does not take positions on legislative proposals.