Employer-Sponsored Plans Health Insurance News

Los Angeles Times – Millions of unemployed Americans face the prospect of a huge increase in health insurance costs, thanks to the looming expiration of a government subsidy, Kathy M. Kristof reports.

Ezra Klein (Washington Post) – As we went over yesterday, the theory of the excise tax is that employers will buy less costly health-care plans and put the money they save into wages. Most of you had one question in response to that, which was well expressed in the first comment to the post: “I’m confused,” wrote Reader44. “Instead of increasing wages, why won’t employers just take that dollar not spent on health care and increase dividends?”

Jonathan Cohn (The New Republic) – It’s been almost a hundred years since progressives began the campaign to make health care a right. And never before has the campaign come this far. Five congressional committees have now had their say about health care reform. And, as of Tuesday afternoon, all five have said “aye.”

The Treatment blog (The New Republic) – Sometime soon, maybe this week,* the Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote on the health care reform bill it spent the last two weeks debating. Inside and outside the committee, people following this process more closely than I am say the bill is likely to pass. But it’s not yet a sure thing.

Commonwealth Fund – Although employer-sponsored health insurance forms the backbone of the health insurance system in the United States, small businesses are finding it increasingly difficult to provide their workers with comprehensive coverage. In 2007, only 25 percent of employees in small businesses had coverage through their own employers, compared with 74 percent of workers in large firms. Because there are few sources of affordable coverage outside the employer-based system, millions of employees in small businesses are uninsured or have inadequate health insurance. In 2007, 52 percent of workers in small businesses were uninsured or underinsured during the year, compared to half as many employees in large businesses. Congressional health reform bills to reform the health system include provisions specifically aimed at helping small businesses and their employees gain access to affordable, comprehensive coverage.

BusinessWeek – Family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance in the U.S. increased 119% between 1999 and 2008, far, far higher than any increase in wages, according to a new survey. If current trends continue, premiums are on course to increase another 94% by 2020, to an average of $23,842 per family. Employees pay on average about 30% of this amount.

Chicago Sun-Times – The average cost of family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance in Illinois jumped 30 percent from 2003 to 2008, according to a Commonwealth Fund report.

Huffington Post – After weeks of secretive talks, a bipartisan group in the Senate edged closer Monday to a health care compromise that omits a requirement for businesses to offer coverage to their workers and lacks a government insurance option that President Barack Obama favors, according to numerous officials.

Indianapolis Star – Indiana employers have been more generous than most in providing health insurance coverage to their workers, picking up the 12th-highest share of the premium for a family plan, according to the most recent figures available.

Ezra Klein (Washington Post) – The big news of the morning is a new version of the Senate HELP Committee’s health-care reform bill that seems to have everyone confused. The short version is this: CBO estimates that by 2019 the bill will cover 21 million people at a cost of $597 billion. But – and this is important – the HELP Committee’s bill doesn’t include the Medicaid expansion, because Medicaid is under the sole jurisdiction of the Finance Committee. But if Medicaid is expanded to 150 percent, it will cover an additional 20 million at a cost of about $1 trillion. Add in the savings that Finance is expected to get from reforming Medicare and you’re looking at a bill that will cost $1 trillion to $1.3 trillion and cover 42 million people (which would mean 97 percent of the legal population in 2019 would have health insurance) by 2019.