New Survey Shows Employment Is Key Factor To Obtaining Health Coverage

Dec 11, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Joseph Luchok

December 11, 2000

PHONE: (202) 824-1786

e-mail: JLuchok@hiaa.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. – For most non-elderly Americans, employment is the key factor to obtaining health insurance coverage, according to a new survey released today by the Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA).

According to the survey, nearly three out of four workers (74 percent) were offered health insurance by their employers and more than three out of five (63 percent) received coverage through their jobs. However, the HIAA survey also shows that being offered health insurance at work sometimes isn’t enough to guarantee coverage, as income and the cost of coverage help determine whether workers accept employment-based coverage.

"The survey shows that employers are doing their bit to provide coverage to America’s labor force," observed HIAA President Chip Kahn. "However, with a "good as it gets" economy, the data also indicates that covering more workers will take action by policy makers at the state and federal levels.

Additional significant findings of the study include:

• Eighty-eight percent of family members who live with an insured worker receive employment-based coverage.
• 13.6 million of the 17 million uninsured workers were not offered health insurance coverage by their employers.
• Lower-income workers, especially those who work part-time, are both less likely to be offered health coverage and less likely to accept it if it is offered.
• Small firms are much less likely to offer coverage than large firms, and their workers are less likely to accept coverage when it is offered.
• Women are more likely to decline coverage than men but they are less likely to remain uninsured when they do decline it.
• Coverage matters: the uninsured spend less than half as much on health care as all other people.

The study – "Employment-Based Health Insurance Coverage" – was conducted for HIAA by William S. Custer, Ph.D. and Pat Ketsche, Ph.D., M.H.A., both with the Center for Risk Management and Insurance Research at Georgia State University. The study sampled workers between the ages of 19 and 64 who were not full-time students. Data from the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) were used to generate the tables in the report. "Employment-Based Health Insurance Coverage" is the third in a series of studies that they have conducted for HIAA that focus on the uninsured.

The Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA) is the nation’s most prominent trade association representing the private health care system. Its nearly 300 members provide health, long-term care, dental, disability, and supplemental coverage to more than 123 million Americans. It is the nation's premier provider of self-study courses on health insurance and managed care.

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PLEASE NOTE: Full survey (PDF file) - http://membership.hiaa.org/pdfs/001211CusterStudy.pdf