Good News: More Companies are Offering Health Insurance, and More Workers Are Eligible for Coverage
In 2017, the overall percentage of private-sector employers offering health benefits increased for the first time since 2008, according to researchers from the
"We found increases across all sizes of plans," noted EBRI Director of Health Research
In addition, an increasing number of workers are eligible for healthcare coverage through their employers. "While the overall offer rate for health insurance trended down until 2017, the percentage of workers eligible for health coverage has been increasing since 2015," continued Fronstin. "Furthermore," he noted, "the 76.8 percent of workers eligible for health coverage in 2017 was much higher than the percentage of employers offering such coverage. The juxtaposition between the two trends suggests that workers have been migrating to jobs that offer health coverage."
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires that employers with 50 or more employees offer coverage or pay a penalty. Employers with fewer than 50 employees are exempt from this provision. The increase may be due to the strengthening economy, lower unemployment rates, and/or relatively low premium increases.
The full Issue Brief is available here (https://www.ebri.org/pdf/EBRI_IB_455_OfferRates.6Aug18.pdf).
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