Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Fewer employers offer health insurance

|
|
 
  
Published: Nov. 13, 2007 at 11:12 AM

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- The number of employers offering health insurance to workers has dropped 9 percent since 2000, an annual Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation said.

The decline is even steeper among small employers: 45 percent currently offer employees insurance, compared to 58 percent in 2001, an annual survey by the non-partisan foundation showed. The data were reported by USA Today.

Employers also have raised workers' share of insurance costs as premiums have risen several times the inflation rate in recent years, USA Today said. Workers paid an average $273 per month this year for their share of premiums versus $160 in today's dollars in 1999, a 70 percent increase, the survey said.

The majority of Americans are insured through employers and the decline in employer-paid health benefits has invigorated discussion over fundamental changes for the nation's health system, USA Today said.

Recommended Stories
© 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Protesters, police clash at NATO summit Notable deaths of 2012 2012 Billboard Music Awards
The 137th Preakness Stakes Annual Solar eclipse occurs in U.S. Chen Guangcheng arrives in the U.S.
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 29
Members of the Army's Old Guard place flags at Arlington National Ceremtery
View Caption
U.S. flags are seen in the rucksack of a soldier with the Army's 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment, The Old Guard, as he places flags at gravesites in Arlington National Cemetery as part of the Flags-In Memorial Day ceremony on May 24, 2012 in Arlington, Virginia. American flags were placed at each of the more than 220,000 grave markers in honor of those who served and Memorial Day. UPI/Kevin Dietshc
fark
Crimefighter who rides a chopper. In Afghanistan. And is a female. Don't mess with her
Daily Show writer partners with Slate to crowdsource ideas for amending and rewriting the Constitution....
Canada's national archives is being dismantled and scattered, who needs to remember the history...
Man disappears in Niagara Falls whirlpool; presumed to be spinning in his grave
Woman swallows toothbrush while brushing her teeth. Surgeons remove it before Oral B becomes Anal...
MSNBC Host Chris Hayes: I'm 'Uncomfortable' calling fallen military 'Heroes'