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Employer Sponsored Health Insurance

In the United States and other countries that do not have national health systems, employers often offer health insurance as a benefit to employees. RAND has examined how employer-sponsored health insurance impacts economic and social factors such as entrepreneurs and small businesses, national-level health care costs, industry economic performance, and labor market conditions.

Commentary

Temporary Safety-Net Policies Prevented Mass Insurance Loss During the Pandemic

Although it provided a foundation, the ACA alone could not have absorbed the effects of the pandemic's sudden job losses on health care coverage. Temporary expansions to the safety net enacted by Congress also were necessary to stem coverage loss. As the pandemic continues, policymakers will want to keep safety-net provisions as available policy options.

Dec 13, 2021
News Release

Boosting Tax Credits and Other Aid Could Prevent Health Insurance Loss During Future Recessions

The federal Affordable Care Act was not robust enough on its own to stave off a large number of people in New York from losing their health coverage during the pandemic-related recession.

Nov 15, 2021
Report

How to Prevent Health Insurance Loss During Future Recessions

The pandemic–related recession and job loss raised concerns that millions of Americans would lose their health insurance. But temporary aid to protect coverage prevented that from happening. Making the enhanced marketplace tax credits in the American Rescue Plan permanent could keep coverage stable in future recessions.

Nov 12, 2021
Commentary

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.

Oct 11, 2021
Report

Summary of the Current Status of Health Insurance Enrollment in Connecticut

To help the state of Connecticut better understand current health insurance enrollment to support improvements to affordability, access, and equity, the authors estimate the distributions of health insurance enrollment by age, gender, race, and ethnicity in detailed insurance categories.

Aug 13, 2021
Journal Article

The Effect of the Minimum Wage on Employer-Sponsored Insurance for Low-Income Workers and Dependents

Minimum wage increases lead to reductions in employer-sponsored insurance coverage in families with incomes below 300% of the federal poverty level.

Jul 28, 2021
Research Brief

Reducing Hospital Spending: Three Policy Options

RAND researchers have estimated the effects of policy options to reduce hospital prices paid by private health plans, outlining design choices and effectiveness levels for each approach.

Apr 21, 2021
Research Brief

Private U.S. Health Plans Pay Hospitals 247 Percent of What Medicare Would Pay

RAND researchers used data from 49 states and Washington, D.C., to assess hospital prices paid by private health plans. Data sources included $33.8 billion in spending from 3,112 community hospitals—more than half of community hospitals nationwide.

Feb 24, 2021
News Release

Setting Hospital Prices Can Achieve Greater Savings Than Increasing Competition or Price Transparency

Among strategies to curb hospital prices among the commercially insured population in the United States, direct price regulations such as setting rates are likely to achieve greater savings than other approaches like increasing competition or improving price transparency.

Feb 18, 2021
Report

Setting U.S. Hospital Prices Could Cut Overall Health Spending by Billions

Price regulations face political obstacles and have been strongly opposed by medical providers. But setting prices for all commercial health care payers could reduce hospital spending by $61.9 billion to $236.6 billion a year if the rates were set at 100 to 150 percent of the amounts paid by Medicare.

Feb 18, 2021
News Release

Private Health Plans in the U.S. Pay Hospitals 247% of What Medicare Would Pay

Prices paid to hospitals nationally during 2018 by privately insured patients averaged 247% of what Medicare would have paid, with wide variation in prices among states.

Sep 18, 2020
Report

Private Health Plans Pay Hospitals 247% of What Medicare Would Pay

Employers are the largest source of U.S. health insurance, but a lack of price transparency makes it hard for them to assess the costs of hospital services. An analysis of hospital spending by private insurers finds that prices are on average almost two and a half times more than what Medicare would pay.

Sep 18, 2020
News Release

Private Health Plans Pay Hospitals 241% of What Medicare Would Pay

An examination of U.S. hospital prices covering 25 states shows that in 2017, the prices paid to hospitals for privately insured patients averaged 241% of what Medicare would have paid, with wide variation in prices among states.

May 9, 2019
Report

Private Health Plans Pay Hospitals Much More Than What Medicare Would Pay

An examination of U.S. hospital prices covering 25 states shows that in 2017, the prices paid to hospitals for privately insured patients averaged 241 percent of what Medicare would have paid. There was also wide variation in prices among states.

May 9, 2019
Journal Article

Association of Reference Pricing with Drug Selection and Spending

Over an 18 month period, reference pricing for drugs was associated with a reduction in employer spending of $1.34 million but an out-of-pocket spending increase of $0.12 million for employees.

Sep 28, 2017
News Release

Private Payments for Hospital Care in Indiana Are High Relative to Similar Payments Made by Medicare

The prices that large employers pay for hospital care in Indiana are high relative to national norms and are increasing over time relative to the prices that Medicare pays for the same services.

Sep 7, 2017
Report

Employers Pay More Than Medicare for Hospital Services in Indiana

Employers paid 3.5 times what Medicare would have paid for the same hospital outpatient services in Indiana — and 2.1 times the Medicare rate for inpatient care. Price transparency nationwide could help employers become better-informed purchasers of health care and stronger advocates for their employees.

Sep 7, 2017
Multimedia

Drama over Health Care Continues

In this Call with the Experts, RAND senior economist Christine Eibner discusses the Affordable Care Act, what policymakers should consider, and changes that the current administration could make.

Apr 11, 2017
Commentary

Can a Continuous Coverage Requirement Produce a Healthy Insurance Market?

A continuous coverage requirement aims to discourage individuals from waiting until they become sick to buy insurance. This works well in theory. But there is little evidence on how it might work in practice.

Jan 4, 2017
Journal Article

Adverse Selection in Retiree Prescription Drug Plans

Claims data from a large U.S. employer that introduced changes in its medical and drug coverage offerings in 2002 for non-Medicare eligible retirees.

Jun 28, 2016

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