WASHINGTON, D.C. – While most Americans get health care coverage from their job, rising costs are forcing more employers to drop coverage or shift costs onto their workers, witnesses told the Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee today.
“Coverage continues to grow increasingly unaffordable to employers, which has contributed to the precipitous decline in employer-sponsored health coverage over the past decade,” said U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ), chairman of the committee. “In particular, small employers have struggled to meet these rising costs.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, employers offering health care coverage to its workers have dropped from 59 percent in 2001 to approximately 55 percent in the latest data. Employers most often cite the escalating premiums as why they drop coverage or do not offer health insurance coverage at all.
“It is not easy to provide insurance to all our employees,” said Mark Derbyshire, a small employer from Aberdeen, Maryland. “Every year, the premiums go up and every year I have to go back to our employees to ask them to give a little more.”
Derbyshire said that other businesses that do not offer health coverage to their workers are causing costs stresses on the system. He said that uninsured workers who cannot afford health treatments pass on those costs in the form of higher premiums to employers like him.
Health care providers agree.
“Health care providers such as Cooper with a great volume of patients that are uninsured or under-insured, must shift their costs to their paying patients,” said John Sheridan, CEO of Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J. “Cooper is a safety-net health care provider and we are there for our patients without regard for the patients’ ability to pay. Hospitals such as Cooper must shift expenses to those with health insurance.”
According to Kenneth Thorpe, chair of Emory University’s department of health policy and management of the Rollins School of Public Health, the 47 million uninsured Americans ran up $57.4 billion in uncompensated care in 2008.
“When they can, hospitals and physicians shift rising uncompensated costs from the uninsured as well as the underinsured to private payers,” said Thorpe. “It is clear that private payers pay more and that these higher payments are used by providers to defray the costs of care for other patients.”
Many employers who offer workers health insurance coverage view it as a vital benefit to attract and retain the best employees. But, without significant reforms to address skyrocketing costs, the employer-based health care coverage system will continue to shrink.
“Employers have a vested interest in the health and productivity of their workforce and the employer-based system has consistently produced innovative health care solutions,” said James Winkler, a health management consultant with Hewitt Associates LLC. “The poor health of employees not only affects an employer’s health care costs, it can also directly affect employer costs in terms of lost productivity, absence from work, and higher disability costs. This system is increasingly at great risk, given the combination of cumulative increases in health care costs and the current severe economic downturn.”
Created with flickrSLiDR.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, employers offering health care coverage to its workers have dropped from 59 percent in 2001 to approximately 55 percent in the latest data. Employers most often cite the escalating premiums as why they drop coverage or do not offer health insurance coverage at all.
“It is not easy to provide insurance to all our employees,” said Mark Derbyshire, a small employer from Aberdeen, Maryland. “Every year, the premiums go up and every year I have to go back to our employees to ask them to give a little more.”
Derbyshire said that other businesses that do not offer health coverage to their workers are causing costs stresses on the system. He said that uninsured workers who cannot afford health treatments pass on those costs in the form of higher premiums to employers like him.
Health care providers agree.
“Health care providers such as Cooper with a great volume of patients that are uninsured or under-insured, must shift their costs to their paying patients,” said John Sheridan, CEO of Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J. “Cooper is a safety-net health care provider and we are there for our patients without regard for the patients’ ability to pay. Hospitals such as Cooper must shift expenses to those with health insurance.”
According to Kenneth Thorpe, chair of Emory University’s department of health policy and management of the Rollins School of Public Health, the 47 million uninsured Americans ran up $57.4 billion in uncompensated care in 2008.
“When they can, hospitals and physicians shift rising uncompensated costs from the uninsured as well as the underinsured to private payers,” said Thorpe. “It is clear that private payers pay more and that these higher payments are used by providers to defray the costs of care for other patients.”
Many employers who offer workers health insurance coverage view it as a vital benefit to attract and retain the best employees. But, without significant reforms to address skyrocketing costs, the employer-based health care coverage system will continue to shrink.
“Employers have a vested interest in the health and productivity of their workforce and the employer-based system has consistently produced innovative health care solutions,” said James Winkler, a health management consultant with Hewitt Associates LLC. “The poor health of employees not only affects an employer’s health care costs, it can also directly affect employer costs in terms of lost productivity, absence from work, and higher disability costs. This system is increasingly at great risk, given the combination of cumulative increases in health care costs and the current severe economic downturn.”
Created with flickrSLiDR.
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