Between 1994 and 1997 the percentage of children covered by an employment-based health plan increased from 58.1 percent to 59.7 percent, after years of a steady erosion in coverage. As a result of the increase in the percentage of children with employment-based coverage and population growth,...

The effects of retiree health insurance on the decision to retire have not been examined until recently. It is an area of increasing significance because of rising health care costs for retirees, the uncertain future of Medicare, and increased life expectancy. In general, studies suggest that...

Would employer health benefits have expanded even more than they did, if the cost of providing them were not rising much faster than inflation?Between the late 1980s and mid-1990s the percentage of Americans without health insurance coverage rose, in large part because rising health benefit...

The employment-based health benefits system established its roots many years ago. It was during World War II that many more employers began to offer health benefits. Recently, however, both the percentage of workers with employment-based health benefits and the comprehensiveness of such coverage...

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of a consumer-directed health plan with a health savings account (CDHP-HSA) on utilization of and adherence to medications among individuals with chronic disease.Study Design: Pre-post comparison study with matched control group (difference-in-differences...

Access Health, a Michigan-based “three-share plan,” is viewed as a successful community-based approach to expanding health benefits in the workplace. It was the stimulus for recently proposed legislation to federally fund similar plans nationally. The program evolved with the support of the...

Consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) are designed to make employees more cost- and health-conscious by exposing them more directly to the costs of their care, which should lower demand for care and, in turn, control premium growth. These features have made consumer-directed plans increasingly...

This Issue Brief provides data on employment-based health insurance, with a discussion of recent trends and how sponsorship rates, offer rates, coverage rates, and take-up rates vary for different workers. Other sections examine reasons why workers do not participate in employment-based health...