This job makes me sick – and so does the cost of health insurance!

Studies have reported the same facts for years: psychological stress and environmental pollution cause health problems for employees.

We used to think that it was only fair that our employers provide a safety net of health benefits. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a study in 2001 examining the Role of Health Insurance in Successful Labor Force Entry and Employment Retention that found that “[p]articipants were vocal about the importance of having access to affordable health insurance during adulthood” and “emphasized the importance of having access to affordable prescription medication, whether through public or private insurance, as key to maintaining health and functioning within the community.” This report focused on the insurance needs of people with disabilities, but the comments of participants in the focus groups cited above certainly represent the needs of all working adults. One ironic feature of the report is its section titled “Transitions from Public to Private Coverage Difficult.” While the difficulties of switching from Social Security disability coverage to employer-provided private insurance are considerable, the same level of difficulty now faces an increasing number of non-disabled workers forced to go in the other direction – from adequate private insurance to Medicaid or no insurance whatsoever.

Now the escalating cost of health benefits — let’s not get into the quagmire of the socio-political causes of that economic fiasco – has driven employers to downsize and outsource, to avoid hiring older highly-qualified workers (whose expertise they need) because of where the 50-somethings fall on the actuarial tables, and to require that their remaining employees shoulder more and more of the cost of health insurance.

These issues have been addressed before in United Professionals articles – “Sick – The Untold Story of America’s Healthcare Crisis – and the People Who Pay the Price” and “Silicon Valley workers face hardships.”

In the current situation, universal health insurance funded independently of employers seems increasingly attractive to businesses and their employees, alike. On May 30, 2007, Ronald Brownstein observes in the L.A. Times , “Democrats are trying to attract business to comprehensive reform by emphasizing ideas that would cut their costs. Hillary Clinton last week proposed that health insurance companies, as a condition of participating in federal programs, be required to cover both preventive and disease-management services that could help reduce premiums. Obama echoed her Tuesday. Obama also revived the best policy idea of Sen. John F. Kerry’s 2004 campaign: a proposal for

Washington to fund most of the bill for high-cost patients once their annual healthcare bills exceed a fixed level. Shifting those catastrophic expenses to government would lower employer premiums. So might Obama’s surprisingly sharp-edged proposals to limit insurance company profits. The best chance for reaching (or even nearing) universal healthcare coverage is a system of shared responsibility that requires government, individuals and business to all contribute. The ideas percolating in the states, and among the leading Democratic presidential contenders, move in that direction. But unless big employers also finally act on their stake in reform, healthcare for all is likely to remain out of reach — at great cost not only to the national interest but to corporate

America’s own bottom line.”

Tags: health-insurance, health_benefits, health_care_crisis, health_insurance_premiums

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 3rd, 2007 at 3:49 pm and is filed under Directors Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.