Fewer get workplace health plans

[KC]

Fewer get workplace health plans
Premiums rise, coverage drops over decade
By Kimberly Blanton, Globe Staff, 9/19/2003

Americans who receive health insurance through their employers have dropped to less than one- half of all workers from about two- thirds a decade ago, according to a report on the nation's health coverage released yesterday by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Health specialists said the decline in employer-sponsored health coverage stems from soaring insurance premiums and the inability of workers and small employers to afford the increasingly costly coverage. The report said there was a 75 percent increase in premiums paid by employees for their share of health coverage over the past decade, outpacing wages or inflation.

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"Employer-sponsored coverage has traditionally been the mainstay of the US healthcare system, and if it begins to erode we're going to have larger numbers of people without health coverage," said Sara Collins of the Commonwealth Fund, a health research organization.

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Marshall said rising premiums are the main reason workers are dropping coverage at a time when co-payments for drugs and office visits are also going up. The average premium paid by an employee for a single plan went from $34.09 per month in 1993 to $60.24 today, according to the bureau. For a family plan, an employee's share of the monthly premium rose from $130.65 to $228.98 over the same period.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/09/19/fewer_get_workplace_health_plans/