The U.S. Government accountability Office recently reported that fewer employers in Dallas, Houston, throughout Texas and the rest of the U.S. Are offering condition benefits. This is mostly because many new small employers have chosen not to pay for group condition insurance due to rising costs and executive headaches.
The study reported an eight-percentage point drop in the share of small employers that offered benefits to individuals from 2001 to 2006, from 68% to 60%. It also that reported that many employers who offer condition benefits now insist that their employees pay a higher share of the costs.
Kaiser Medical
In addition, the Gao said that some employers are now offering consumer-directed condition plans. These plans trade lower premiums for significantly higher deductibles. Or some employers are offering mini-medical plans that provide more little coverage at lower premiums.
"While the share of large employers offering condition benefits remained fairly constant in the middle of 2001 and 2006 at about 98 percent, the share of small employers -- with 3-199 employees -- offering them dropped from 68 percent to 60 percent," said the Gao in its recent report.
"Health procedure experts from one assosication interviewed said that this decline is likely due to new employers choosing not to offer coverage rather than existing employers dropping coverage," the Gao added.
"Some of these recent changes to condition benefits may particularly influence low-wage workers who are less able to afford higher out-of-pocket costs, and less salutary workers who use more condition services," added the Gao, which compiled and wrote the article at Congress' request.
Unfortunately, employees who lose coverage are probably those least likely to be able to deal for it, the Gao found. "Survey data indicate that from 2001 through 2005, eligibility for condition coverage and the extent to which workers are covered have both declined most among low-wage workers".
Currently, roughly 47 million Americans carry no condition insurance -- roughly five million in Texas alone. Government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid try to take up the slack by providing condition insurance for the poor, disabled and elderly.
This data supports a similar study completed by the Kaiser house Foundation. In the foundation's 2005 each year manager condition Benefits Survey, it was reported that the percentage of businesses offering condition insurance to their workers has declined steadily over the last five years, as the cost of providing coverage continues to outpace inflation and wage growth.
The Kaiser peruse found that 20% of employers who still offer condition insurance to private workers now provide a high-deductible condition plan option. And it was reported that large firms -- those with 5,000 or more workers -- are a lot more likely than smaller firms to offer a high-deductible plan option, with 33% offering one in 2005. The peruse defined high-deductible health
plans as those with at least a ,000 deductible for particular coverage or at least a ,000 deductible for house coverage.
Despite the growing availability of high-deductible condition plans, relatively few workers are enrolled in these sorts of consumer-driven arrangements. The peruse estimates that in 2007 about 2.3% of non-federal covered workers, or 1.6 million people, are enrolled in high-deductible condition plans with a condition repayment arrangement (Hra), and about 1.2%, or 810,000 people, are enrolled in plans that are eligible for use with a condition savings list (Hsa).
Other highlights from the Kaiser 2005 peruse include:
* Firms that do not offer condition benefits to their workers -- the overwhelming majority were small firms -- were most likely to cite cost as a key factor.
* Type of insurance. In 2005, adored provider (Ppo) plans were more tasteless than ever, with 61% of all employees with condition coverage enrolling in a Ppo.
* hereafter plans. Seeing toward the future, more than 40% of large firms (200 or more workers) offering condition benefits said they were “very likely" to ask employees to pay more in premiums the next year, while just 15% of smaller firms said they planned to do so.
* Utilization and disease management. About eight in 10 covered workers (81%) were in a condition plan that used case supervision for high-cost claims. Among workers in these plans, virtually all (99%) were in a plan that in case,granted supervision for diabetes. Large majorities were also in plans that in case,granted supervision for asthma (86%), hypertension (82%), and high cholesterol (66%).
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