FEWER PENNSYLVANIANS GET HEALTH INSURANCE THROUGH THEIR JOBS

Keystone Research Center finds 494,000 fewer Pennsylvanians Covered by Employer-Provided Health Insurance Since 2000

Harrisburg – The number of Pennsylvanians with employer-provided health insurance declined by 4.1 percent between 2000 and 2004 according to a new study by the Keystone Research Center and Washington D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute.

The decline means that about 494,000 fewer Pennsylvanians get health insurance through their employer today than did in 2000. One in seven of the people who lost employer-provided health insurance coverage in the U.S. between 2000 and 2004 lived in Pennsylvania.

“Ask most people what they think a good job is and you’ll hear them answer ‘one that provides health insurance,’ said Mark Price, a labor economist at the Keystone Research Center. “By this widely accepted measure, the quality of many jobs in Pennsylvania has declined over the last five years.”

“The only real alternative for workers not earning a poverty wage who lose insurance is to purchase coverage on their own.  To replace employer provided family coverage in 2004 would have cost Pennsylvania families about $9,000 or 21 percent of the state’s median household income of $42,941,” said Price.

“The loss of employer-provided health insurance is clearly a financial challenge for middle-class families. We have created a world-class health system that too few businesses and families can afford.”

In the United States as a whole, over the last four years, about 3.7 million fewer people had employer-provided health insurance, while Medicaid, including the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), increased nation wide by nearly eight million participants.  This is a significant shift from private sector coverage to public sector coverage, especially in the case of children.

Although nationally, 2.5 million youth lost employer-provided health coverage between 2000 and 2004, many were caught by the public sector safety net as indicated by the enrollment of an additional 4.8 million more children in both Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) over that same time period.

Because some employers have transferred the responsibility of insuring their employees onto the public system, local governments in New York have begun to adopt measures that require businesses to provide health insurance to their workers, or pay into a government fund that provides coverage to workers. 

“In Pennsylvania we have to begin to think seriously about the consequences of employers shifting the cost of doing business onto the taxpayer.” Price went on to say “Good employers would welcome reforms that require their competitors who now shift health costs to the taxpayer to offer coverage.” 

In the United States as a whole, according to the EPI study, the number of Americans without health insurance rose by over six million, from 39.8 million in 2000 to 45.8 million in 2004.   This increase was due primarily to the precipitous decline in employer-provided health coverage for workers and their families.

No state in the Union experienced a statistically significant increase in employer-sponsored health-insurance coverage. The states with the largest declines, all over six percent were Maryland, Maine, Missouri, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.

In the U.S. workers among the bottom 20 percent of hourly wage earners were the least likely to have employer-provided coverage; 24.4 percent of the bottom quintile were covered compared to 77.5 percent for workers in the highest wage quintile.

However, no category of workers was insulated from the loss of coverage.   Even full-time, full-year workers and workers with a college degree experienced declines in coverage between 2000 and 2004.  Full-time, full-year workers’ coverage rates fell by 2.3 percentage points and college graduates’ coverage rates fell by 2.8 percentage points.

“These data demonstrate that the economy isn’t delivering for families, due to out of date policies, strong productivity growth is not translating into a better life for Pennsylvania’s families,” said Price. 

The EPI briefing paper Prognosis Worsens for Workers’ Health Care, by Elise Gould can be found on the EPI Web site at http://www.epinet.org.