Employer Sponsored Health Insurance

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Is the Fight for $15 Going to Cost Low-Wage Workers Their Health Insurance?

Minimum wage increases can lead to reductions in employer-sponsored health insurance for some workers and their dependents. If policymakers want to raise the minimum wage, they should look beyond standard labor market outcomes and take into account other potential effects.

Michael Dworsky, Christine Eibner @Chrissyeibner, et al.

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Can a Continuous Coverage Requirement Produce a Healthy Insurance Market?

A continuous coverage requirement is intended to discourage individuals from waiting until they become sick to purchase insurance. Such a requirement works well in theory to maintain a healthy marketplace, but there is little evidence on how well it might work in practice.

Erin Lindsey Duffy, Michael Dworsky, et al.

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Insurance Enrollment Holds Steady in Advance of the 2016 Open Enrollment Period

Since September 2013, the number of people with health insurance coverage has increased by 16.6 million. But since the second ACA open enrollment period in February 2015, the number of people with coverage has remained relatively flat. The third open enrollment period began on November 1. Whether the number of uninsured will continue to decline remains an open question.

Katherine Grace Carman, Christine Eibner @Chrissyeibner

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A Tale of Two Deliveries, or an Out-of-Network Problem

Two mothers gave birth within weeks of each other, at the same hospital, using the same employer-sponsored insurance. Both had an epidural. But one received a surprise physician bill for anesthesiology, while the other didn't have to pay a dime. Why?

Erin Audrey Taylor, Layla Parast

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Exchange Tax Credits or Employer Coverage: What's Better for Low-Income Americans?

As the King v. Burwell case approaches, there's likely to be more discussion about potential modifications to the ACA's tax credit structure. Policymakers might consider whether there are opportunities to level the playing field for low-income workers, regardless of whether their employers offer insurance.

Christine Eibner @Chrissyeibner

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Tracking the Affordable Care Act with the RAND Health Reform Opinion Study

The HROS uses panel data to track changes in public opinion regarding the ACA and insurance coverage. By surveying the same respondents each month, the HROS observes not only aggregate changes, but also individual changes in opinion or insurance coverage over time.

Katherine Grace Carman

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Survey Estimates Net Gain of 9.3 Million American Adults with Health Insurance

Early survey evidence indicates that the Affordable Care Act has already led to a substantial increase in insurance coverage. Consistent with the ACA's design, this gain in insurance has come not only from new enrollment in the marketplaces, but also from new enrollment in employer coverage and Medicaid.

Katherine Grace Carman, Christine Eibner @Chrissyeibner

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Checking the ACA's Vital Signs

Despite pervasive challenges associated with the rollout of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the administration remains optimistic about its fate. Critics, however, have seized upon the recent mishaps as evidence of the ACA's inevitable demise.

Evan Saltzman

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Employer Mandate Delay II: Nothing to See Here

Amid mounting political pressure and angst in the business community, the Obama administration announced an additional delay in enforcing the employer mandate component of the Affordable Care Act for some firms until 2016. The additional delay will have little impact.

Evan Saltzman

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Employer-Provided Health Insurance: Why Does It Persist, and Will It Continue after 2014?

As the ACA is implemented, policy makers should be attuned to potential inefficiencies and inequities created by a system with different regulatory and tax rules for small employers, large employers, and individual health plans. Attempts to equalize the playing field may be difficult.

Christine Eibner @Chrissyeibner

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Four Questions on Canceled Insurance Policy Fix

David Mastio, Forum editor at USA TODAY, asked RAND's Christine Eibner four questions about President Obama's plan to fix the problem with people getting their insurance canceled.

Christine Eibner @Chrissyeibner

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Data Points: Why Delay of the Employer Mandate May Not Actually Mean That Much

The bottom line is that the employer mandate does not provide a large inducement for firms to change their health insurance offerings, but it does raise a substantial amount of money to pay for the ACA's coverage provisions over time.

Carter C. Price @CarterCPrice, Evan Saltzman

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Will Small Firms Self-Insure After Jan. 1, 2014?

Because of the ACA's regulations, some smaller employers with young and healthy workers are considering avoiding the purchase of health care coverage in the regulated market, opting instead to self-insure their employees.

Amado Cordova, Christine Eibner @Chrissyeibner

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In Brief: Amelia M. Haviland on Consumer-Directed Health Plans

Amelia Haviland presents the results of several new RAND studies on cost and quality in consumer-directed health plans, and explores how switching plans affects the quality of care.

Amelia Haviland

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Health Care Cost Growth Is Hurting Middle-Class Families

Unfortunately, nearly every actor in our health care delivery system—hospitals, physicians, other health care providers, insurance companies and the manufacturers of drugs and devices—is currently focused on maximizing revenue growth, write Arthur Kellermann and David Auerbach.

Arthur L. Kellermann, David I. Auerbach

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Health Care Costs Are Killing Us

At a time when our country is teetering on the edge of a “fiscal cliff,” no challenge in health care is more important than reducing health care spending, writes Arthur L. Kellermann.

Arthur L. Kellermann

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Will More Employers Drop Coverage Under the ACA? Don't Bet on It

A problem with using surveys to predict behavior is that they measure employer sentiment toward the ACA today, rather than the economic decisions employers typically make when the time comes, writes Art Kellermann.

Arthur L. Kellermann

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Expanding Consumer-Directed Health Plans Could Help Cut Overall Health Care Spending

If consumer-directed health plans grow to account for half of all employer-sponsored insurance in the United States, health costs could drop by $57 billion annually—about 4 percent of all health care spending among the nonelderly.

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Would the Affordable Care Act Lead to Reductions in Employer-Sponsored Coverage?

As the U.S. Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) individual mandate, one of the questions being debated is what effect the mandate would have on employer-sponsored health insurance coverage. A factor to consider in this is the effect the ACA would have on small businesses, which employ the majority of America's private-sector workforce.

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Scorecard for New Health Reform Legislation

How close do you think that the health care reform plan would come, in reality, to achieving each goal? On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 is extremely close, and 1 is not at all close.

Elizabeth A. McGlynn