Employer-sponsored Health Insurance In California

Insurance is the present day need of the modern society. Employer-sponsored health insurance is one amongst the insurance schemes in which the employees’ are benefited. It ensures that the employee’s health is protected and the employee avails a sustainable growth. A common reason why the scheme is being offered is on a general concern of the employees’ and their families’ health and welfare, employee productivity, retention and recruitment. On an average, the average cost of insurance that an employee avails is three thousand dollars a year.

Any small business, defined as 2 to 50 employees, must be offered the similar health insurance for small businesses that is offered to all other small businesses. It is impossible to deny coverage to any concern which pays their premium, doing business for at least two months, offering the coverage to all its employees including the part-time workers. It is also the responsibility of the insurance company to inform the minimal number of employees allowed for a plan, so that they have the right to withdraw the amount. The insurance maybe cancelled if the minimal number of employees did not participate.

Any employee avails insurance based on his average age and location. The employer sponsored plans were forced to increase their premiums to keep up with these increasing costs, and there was only so much of it that could be passed on to the employee. The benefit the health insurance expected is closely related with the status of the employee. The unions in companies mandated that health insurance should be provided, while there was no demand from non union companies. This lead to a bad speculation about those companies among the employees. So, employers were forced to offer this as they had to struggle for the best employees. Plans have also been proposed by politicians that would make employers mandatory to offer insurance plans for their employees or to contribute to national plan on a whole that would be modeled after Medicare without any age limitations.

A recent survey found that nearly half of the small business employers in California don’t provide health insurance for their employees. Adding to this, according to a study released by the University of California-Los Angeles, Center for Health Policy Research, there is a decline in the employer-sponsored health insurance coverage scheme from 56.4% in 2001 to 54.3% in 2005,Los Angeles Times dated 11/07/07.The report also stated that 80% of the uninsured employees either work for employers who did not offer them the health insurance scheme, or were not entitled to receive the health benefits. Even more drastic was 20% did not even enroll them in the available insurance plans.

The study also further reported the increase in the premium family coverage by 66% through employer-sponsored plans from 2001 to 2005.Although there was a significant amount of residents availing the benefit of employer-based coverage proportion of Californians who have not insured declined from 21.9% in 2001 to 20% in 2005. The study features the decline to enrollment increases in medicals, the state’s Medicaid program; Healthy-Families; and county-based insurance programs. According to Times, about one in three California children are insured through such programs. The report also stated that 63% of uninsured Californians were U.S. citizens, 15% non citizens having green cards and 22%of the states’ uninsured residents were undocumented immigrants.

Also on the same day the Center on Policy Initiatives released a report stating that about 8.7 million of California’s 17.3 million adult workers do not have employer-based health insurance and 2.9 million do not have any insurance. According to the study, people with high wages were more likely to have the health coverage than the employees with low wages. As a major requirement, Health insurance for employees makes financial sense, as well as motivates employees, keeps them happy and reduces absenteeism.

Employer-sponsored health insurance is in crisis, only informed people shall be benefiting themselves and bring benefit to the country. It is high time all these setbacks are dealt with the perfect plan and strategy.