Four of Five U.S. Part-Timers Lack Employer Health Insurance
From Bloomberg
Four of every five part-time workers in the U.S. lack employer-sponsored health insurance, a study released today reports.
By comparison, about one of every four full-time employees is without such insurance, according to the study conducted by the Iowa Policy Project, a nonprofit public policy research group in Mt. Vernon, Iowa.
The study analyzed insurance coverage for ``nonstandard'' employees, such as part-time, temporary or contract workers. About 34.3 million Americans, or 25 percent of the nation's workforce, fall into that category, according to the study.
The research ``demonstrates the weakness in our health insurance system'' for a ``vulnerable group of workers,'' said Sara Collins, a senior program officer with the Commonwealth Fund, a New York nonprofit group that financed the research.
The study, based on 2001 census data and telephone surveys by the researchers in 2003 and 2004, found 21 percent of nonstandard employees had health insurance through their jobs, compared with 74 percent of full-time workers.
About 15 percent of the children and 16 percent of the wives of nonstandard employees received health insurance through the worker's employer, the study found.
Rising Costs
``It's a problem if you're a part-time employee who can't get full-time coverage because your paycheck won't cover it,'' said Kate Sullivan Hare, executive director of health care policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington.
``We need to have a private health-care insurance market that can cover these people,'' Sullivan Hare said in an interview.
Because of rising costs, it's becoming ``less and less likely'' that employers will subsidize all workers' health insurance, she said. A study released in October by benefits consulting firm Hewitt Associates predicted U.S. companies will pay an average 9.9 percent more for workers' health insurance next year.
Some companies employ part-time workers to avoid paying for health insurance, Kathleen Stoll, director of health policy for Families USA, a Washington-based group that lobbies for ``affordable'' health care, said in an interview.
The study also found nonstandard workers use government insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid, at five times the rate of regular workers. Nonstandard workers rely on the government because they have ``less options,'' the Commonwealth Fund's Collins said.
`Growing Trend'
Less employer-based coverage ``has been a growing trend'' since the 1970s, said Peter Fisher, research director for the Iowa Policy Project and one of the study's authors. Employment- based health insurance today covers 60 percent of the U.S. population, down from 70 percent in the mid-1970s, according to research cited by the study.
Fisher and the two other authors of the study, Elaine Ditsler and Colin Gordon, encourage labor law changes that would give nonstandard workers the same status as full-time employees. Still, policy makers must be ``wary of mandating coverage for very low-wage workers'' when employees can't bear the cost, the study says.
Fisher said he doesn't anticipate increased employer-based coverage in the near future. ``I don't see policies coming out of the national level to deal with health-care costs,'' he said in an interview.
The Iowa Policy Project's telephone survey of nonstandard workers consisted of 20-minute telephone interviews among a random sample of workers over 18 years old.
The survey has a margin of error of 1.5 percentage points, while the analysis based on Census Bureau data has a margin of error of less than one percent.
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Four of every five part-time workers in the U.S. lack employer-sponsored health insurance, a study released today reports.
By comparison, about one of every four full-time employees is without such insurance, according to the study conducted by the Iowa Policy Project, a nonprofit public policy research group in Mt. Vernon, Iowa.
The study analyzed insurance coverage for ``nonstandard'' employees, such as part-time, temporary or contract workers. About 34.3 million Americans, or 25 percent of the nation's workforce, fall into that category, according to the study.
The research ``demonstrates the weakness in our health insurance system'' for a ``vulnerable group of workers,'' said Sara Collins, a senior program officer with the Commonwealth Fund, a New York nonprofit group that financed the research.
The study, based on 2001 census data and telephone surveys by the researchers in 2003 and 2004, found 21 percent of nonstandard employees had health insurance through their jobs, compared with 74 percent of full-time workers.
About 15 percent of the children and 16 percent of the wives of nonstandard employees received health insurance through the worker's employer, the study found.
Rising Costs
``It's a problem if you're a part-time employee who can't get full-time coverage because your paycheck won't cover it,'' said Kate Sullivan Hare, executive director of health care policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington.
``We need to have a private health-care insurance market that can cover these people,'' Sullivan Hare said in an interview.
Because of rising costs, it's becoming ``less and less likely'' that employers will subsidize all workers' health insurance, she said. A study released in October by benefits consulting firm Hewitt Associates predicted U.S. companies will pay an average 9.9 percent more for workers' health insurance next year.
Some companies employ part-time workers to avoid paying for health insurance, Kathleen Stoll, director of health policy for Families USA, a Washington-based group that lobbies for ``affordable'' health care, said in an interview.
The study also found nonstandard workers use government insurance, including Medicare and Medicaid, at five times the rate of regular workers. Nonstandard workers rely on the government because they have ``less options,'' the Commonwealth Fund's Collins said.
`Growing Trend'
Less employer-based coverage ``has been a growing trend'' since the 1970s, said Peter Fisher, research director for the Iowa Policy Project and one of the study's authors. Employment- based health insurance today covers 60 percent of the U.S. population, down from 70 percent in the mid-1970s, according to research cited by the study.
Fisher and the two other authors of the study, Elaine Ditsler and Colin Gordon, encourage labor law changes that would give nonstandard workers the same status as full-time employees. Still, policy makers must be ``wary of mandating coverage for very low-wage workers'' when employees can't bear the cost, the study says.
Fisher said he doesn't anticipate increased employer-based coverage in the near future. ``I don't see policies coming out of the national level to deal with health-care costs,'' he said in an interview.
The Iowa Policy Project's telephone survey of nonstandard workers consisted of 20-minute telephone interviews among a random sample of workers over 18 years old.
The survey has a margin of error of 1.5 percentage points, while the analysis based on Census Bureau data has a margin of error of less than one percent.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Insurance Q&A Blog Homepage- http://insureqa.blogspot.com/
To have your questions or comments addressed send them to insureqa@hotmail.com
To buy a text link on Insurance Q&A Blog, Click Here--- http://insureqa.blogspot.com/2005/10/buy-text-link-from-insurance-q.html
posted by RonL @ 6:24 AM
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