Less than one-half of U.S. adults covered by employer-sponsored health insurance

[Redfairen]

Source: Reuters

Less than one-half of adults in the United States received health insurance through their employer in 2012, but the market showed signs of stabilizing after three years of decline, according to a poll.

The Gallup survey said employer-sponsored insurance, long a pillar of the $2.8-trillion U.S. health-care system, covered just under 45 per cent of U.S. adults last year, down from about 49 per cent in 2008, when the economy was engulfed by recession.

The biggest losses occurred among people earning less than $90,000 per year and among minorities.

.......

"High unemployment is partly to blame for the decrease in employer-based health insurance. The decline may also be due to fewer employers offering insurance or due to employees opting to not take their employers' plan due to rising health insurance costs for employees," Gallup said.

Read more: http://www.hrreporter.com/articleview/17369-less-than-one-half-of-us-adults-covered-by-employer-sponsored-health-insurance

[NMDemDist2]

1. MediCare for all!!! n/t

[valerief]

4. +1 gazillion

[wordpix]

9. I agree - I am paying $400/mo. for indiv. health insurance for NOTHING

unless I get a catastrophic illness.

I have a high deductible to get such a "good deal." I never reach my deductible by the end of the year; i.e. I pay out of pocket for everything. Then at the beginning of the year, I start at "0" again until the end of the year, when I likewise don't reach my deductible and pay everything out of pocket. Meanwhile, this insurance is costing me nearly $5000/year ---for NOTHING.

My insurance is Blue Cross Blue Shield - I hate them but they're as "cheap" as I can find.

[Smilo]

2. My employer offers it - but it is so expensive

there are many of us who go without - you know so we can pay the rent and buy food - the little luxuries in life. /snark

[Yo_Mama]

3. Yeah, both the cost and coverage estimates for Obamacare are way off

The employment/population ratio is stuck in the 50s, and a lot of that is in low-wage part-time employment, so this stat is not at all surprising:

[progressoid]

5. Wouldn't matter if we were ALL covered by employer health insurance.

Health insurance does not equal health care.

[happyslug]

6. Jobs earning less then $90,000? That is

Median Income is only $50,054 in 2011 (Median Income is the point where 1/2 of the population is earning less, 1/2 is earning more):
http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p60-243.pdf
See page 31

32.5% of the population earn more then $75,000, 67.5% less then $75,000
11.5% of the population earn more then $75,000 but less then $100,000
4.9% of the population earn more then $100,000 but less then $250,000
4.2% of the population earn more then $250,000.

http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/acsbr10-18.pdf

Thus with a cut off of $90,000 we are looking at just under 90% of the people of the US.

[raccoon]

7. My guess is in the red states the percentage is highest. nt

[bvar22]

8. I would like to see 0 (ZERO)% of American Workers covered by employer based Health Insurance.

It was a sick, slave game to connect Health Care to the Employer in the first place.

I STAND with FDR and LBJ:
Access to health care is a basic Human Right to be protected and administered on an equal basis by our Government of the People.

Access to Health Care is NOT a COMMODITY to be sold to Americans by For Profit Corporations.
THAT is the Republican Plan.



You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their rhetoric, promises, or excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/center]

[dreamnightwind]

10. +1000 - nt

[DaveJ]

12. I can't believe our country has stooped to such a level.

It's like Republicans have lost their ability to disparage women and minorities, so they now need to marginalize low income earners (well actually half of Americans) by denying the most basic aspect of security there is, healthcare.

If you are poor (or half of Americans) you might be able to get healthcare but at the expense of ruined credit and what little money they might have.

Talking to Republicans, they think it's all fine and dandy.

This is why the Republican policy is a disease and all traces of it need to be completely eliminated.

[bvar22]

13. Mandating that Americans BUY Health Insurance...

... from For Profit Corporations isn't exactly a "step in the right direction",
at least not the Democratic Party I joined 46 years ago.

[DaveJ]

14. I have a somewhat different opinion on that though.

Overall I agree, but when you have an industry that employs millions it's hard to put them all out of the street. I don't see how it could have been done any other way.

I have more of a problem with Republicans attempting to deny tax payer funding for insurance for those who can't afford it.

[wordpix]

16. so that we can pay for $1700/night stays in a hospital + cost of meds

like $1.50 Tylenol. Just reported by author of a Time Mag. expose last night.

[PATRICK]

11. As it relates to the USPS

The GOP forced prepayment funding of retiree health care benefits for the distant future when by plan there will actually be no USPS but just this giant slush fund of now irrelevant money. At the same time new hires are denied almost ALL benefits and given the health insurance benefit(plans and payments at shared cost) after one year. Those people are paid almost half of what career employees earn.

At the same time the USPS wants to offer their own health plan as a the single option- with the rationale being to cut costs- which means despite its more profitable size that the cost cutting will not go to better benefits so much as into the bottom line being sucked dry by Congress and bulk mailer discounts. All this is funded by your purchase of stamps, which it would be nice to remind your playful House Representatives and Senators who have given themselves the final say. And free mail privileges.

Business math is working against all worker benefits and health insurance is just as grudging. There is a tipping point when wages are not at all equal to the cost of living. That tipping point is easily and first reached when it comes to skyrocketing health care and the middleman money empires. Their profit should not be the concern of stamp purchasers.

[RainDog]

15. k&r n/t