Remember Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign mantra, “It’s the economy, stupid!” A study released today by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation indicates those four words are the best answer to the question, “Why are so many employers dropping health insurance?” Or, to put it another way, economic conditions caused the decline of employer-sponsored health insurance coverage.
So if you’re looking for a single cause to blame, the Great Recession is a better bet than Obamacare, according to the study.
Before the recession coverage was pretty stable, but even then employees increasingly declined offered coverage because of increasing employee financial responsibility, in the form of premium share, deductibles, and co-insurance. In 2005 79.7% of employees accepted employer-offered insurance. The figures in 2009 and 2013 were 77.8% and 75.3%.
The percentage pf employers offering insurance dropped from 55.7 in 2005, to 53.7 in 2009, to 49.7 in 2013.
The most depressing finding wasn’t really a surprise: from 2005 to 2013 the average annual premium for family coverage went from $10,367 to $16,302—a whopping 57.2% spike.
Today’s post was contributed by Norman G. Tabler, Jr.
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