A report done by Iowa Policy Project, which is a non-profit group, shows that it has become more difficult for people to find employer sponsored health insurance. There are a number of factors that are contributing to this situation. The report also found that many consumers are confused about their own health insurance coverage.
The Iowa Policy Project has released a report that was funded by the United States Department of Labor. The results of this report can be summed up by a statement made by Noga O’Connor, the co-author of the report. O’Connor said:
“Employer-provided health insurance has become more rare and more expensive, leaving the economically weakest workers to fend for themselves”.
There are many factors that are causing this situation. Many people became unemployed during the recent Recession. All of the people who had jobs that offered employer-sponsored health insurance lost their insurance when they lost their job.
As you are probably aware, the full time jobs that came with health benefits have since become much more difficult to find. There are a lot of people who spent years working full time jobs who are now working one or more part time jobs instead. Part time employment rarely comes with health insurance benefits.
Other people are taking contract jobs, or becoming “freelancers”. This situation can be very unstable, and is, in many ways, similar to being “self-employed”. Obviously, no one is offering freelance workers employer based health insurance. Things are not set up to function that way.
Contract workers, freelance workers, part time workers, and temporary or seasonal workers, are in a category called “nonstandard workers”. The report finds that this group is significantly less likely than standard workers to have health insurance. Standard workers are the group of workers who have found full time employment.
The report also found that many Americans do not fully understand the health insurance coverage that they have. This can cause errors on census data, and other types of reports. There are people who have a discount card that they truly believe is an equivalent to a health insurance policy. Those two things are very different in many important ways. Others thought that a discount medical plan was the same as having health insurance.
This report by the Iowa Policy Project is titled: “Fending for Themselves”. The title reflects the reality that many American workers are being left to figure out how to afford health insurance all on their own, without the help from an employer. This is a dramatic change from how people got health insurance in previous years, before massive amounts of people lost their full time employment, (and their health insurance that came with their jobs).
Image by Quinn Dombrowski on Flickr