Today's Health Care Check-Up: - October 2, 2000

Employers Are Helping More People Get Health Insurance

• Number of Americans who were removed from the ranks of the uninsured through employer-sponsored health insurance: 1.7 million.
• Number of Americans who would go right back on if Dingell-Norwood-Kennedy becomes law: 1.3 million.

According to data released last week by the Census Bureau, the number of Americans without health insurance fell by 1.7 million from 1998 through 1999 thanks to employers making health care coverage more available to their employees even though costs are steadily rising. But if the Dingell-Norwood-Kennedy patients’ bill of rights becomes law, much of the gains made by employers in helping their workers get health coverage will just as quickly be lost.

The Dingell-Norwood-Kennedy bill would subject employers to unlimited lawsuits, which in turn would lead to even higher health care costs and more Americans without health insurance. Many employers are already anticipating double-digit increases in health care costs next year. According to the CBO, Dingell-Norwood-Kennedy would add another 4.1 percent to those health care costs, which alone translates into 1.3 million more uninsured.

So what employers have struggled so hard to achieve on behalf of their employees could be wiped out by Congress with just one vote.