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Buying group health insurance
through work is a convenient route to coverage for many Americans, and
also typically less expensive than buying similar coverage on one's
own. Group health plans are also beneficial to employers in attracting and retaining a work force.
The characteristics of employers that offer plans
can be broken down this way: Benefits are more commonly offered to
workers in goods-producing industries than in service industries, and
more often in medium-sized and large private-sector businesses (100 or
more employees) than in smaller businesses, according to 2006
statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Workers in
metropolitan areas have higher rates of access to benefits.
The BLS reports that 71 percent of workers in
private industry had access to group health plans and 52 percent
participated in 2006. Clearly not everyone offered a plan chooses to
take it, and socioeconomic factors tend to drive that decision:
- Income: Those who earn higher
incomes are more likely to be eligible for health benefits and also to
participate in health insurance plans when they are offered. For
example, 30.8 percent of workers who earned less than $10,000 per year
were eligible for employer-sponsored health benefits in 2002, compared
with 92.4 percent of workers earning $50,000 or more per year,
according to the U.S. Census Bureau's "Survey of Income and Program
Participation" (SIPP). Then, 91.8 percent of workers who earned $50,000
or more per year took coverage when it was offered, compared to 65.5
percent of workers who earned less than $10,000 per year.
- Age: As age increases,
eligibility and coverage rates for employer-based health benefits
generally increase as well: 29.1 percent of persons age 18 to 20 year
had access to health insurance benefits, while 76.5 percent of those
age 55 to 64 had access to such benefits, according to SIPP. The
participation rates for those same age categories were 16.0 percent and
67.4 percent, respectively. The highest rates of eligibility (80.1
percent) and participation (69.3 percent) were for workers age 45 to
54.
- Race: Racial and ethnic
minorities are less likely than whites to participate in group health
insurance even when it is offered: 32.4 percent of Hispanics did not
have health insurance in 2002 (employer-provided or not), compared with
20.2 percent of blacks, 18.7 percent of Asians and 10.7 percent of
non-Hispanic whites, according to the 2003 "Current Population Survey
Annual Social and Economic Supplement" from the Census Bureau.
- Occupation: White-collar
workers are more likely to be insured than blue-collar workers.
However, workers who are members of a union are more likely to be
covered by health insurance than nonunion workers, according to the
Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI).
Employers
have long carried the burden of being the primary providers of health
insurance, and they say they expect to continue to do so, no matter
what health care plan politicians may pass, according to EBRI research.
Analysis from EBRI released in February 2008 shows
that group health coverage remains fairly stable in terms of the number
of workers eligible for coverage, the number who take it and the share
paid by workers. Unless you're talking about small businesses: EBRI
says that the percentage of employers with fewer than 200 employees
that offer benefits dropped from 68 percent in 2000 to 59 percent in
2007. Also, retiree health benefits are on a steep decline as employers
cut back.
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