In just the first eight months of 2023, over 323,000 workers engaged in a labor action against their employers. Unions have been demanding better wages, protections, and benefits—including better health plans. CHIR’s Maanasa Kona takes a look at the role of unions in securing affordable health coverage for workers, including the innovative strategies they’ve used to reduce the unsustainable growth in health system costs.
On October 3, CHIR held the first in a series of in-person policy briefings on the future of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI), sponsored by Arnold Ventures and West Health. The event, featuring remarks from U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan and a panel discussion moderated by Sarah Kliff of The New York Times, spotlighted state cost containment policies and employer strategies to inform the federal policy process concerning ESI, which covers almost half of all Americans.
As summer was winding down, CHIR was reading up on the latest health policy research. In August, we read about differences between Medicare Advantage and commercial plans’ negotiated hospital prices, the affordability of employer-sponsored insurance for older adults, and the expected growth of 2024 Affordable Care Act Marketplace premiums.
Amidst growing health care costs, adequate health insurance coverage is increasingly unaffordable for employers and employees. There is a growing focus on the role employer-sponsored plans can play in health care cost containment, but under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), the access, affordability, and adequacy of employer coverage is dictated less by law and regulation and more by individual employers.
Employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) covers 160 million Americans, but the adequacy of these plans is in decline. In a new series for CHIRblog, Maanasa Kona and Sabrina Corlette assess some proposed policy options designed to improve the affordability of ESI. The first blog of the series looks at the primary drivers of the erosion occurring in ESI and identifies three recognized policy options to improve affordability for employers and workers alike.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, analyses project up to half of women and girls in the U.S. between the ages of 15 and 44 will live in states that significantly restrict or ban abortion services. The scale and geographic reach of these bans intensifies questions about travel costs and access to these services. Employers are looking at ways to cover abortion-related travel costs for workers.
This month, the CHIR team celebrated the end of the school year with new health policy research. For the latest installment of our monthly research roundup, we reviewed studies on access to providers in Medicaid managed care networks, how the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) affects state cost containment reforms, and the health coverage implications of the Biden administration’s recent changes to the public charge rule for immigrant communities.
In our newest monthly roundup of health policy research, CHIR’s Emma Walsh-Alker reviews studies on the potential of personalized phone outreach to boost marketplace enrollment, trends in the small-group health insurance market, and the Congressional Budget Office’s latest report comparing how much commercial insurers and Medicare pay for health services.
January can feel like a time for new beginnings, and new year’s resolutions. In recent years, many employers have provided workplace wellness programs that may help employees stick with these resolutions, such as benefits, services, or financial incentives that encourage workers to improve their health. Recent data from KFF’s 2021 Employer Health Benefit Survey showing that employers are reconsidering key elements of their wellness initiatives prompted CHIR to take a look at some of the changes—and ongoing issues—with workplace wellness programs.
By the end of May, employers must notify eligible employees and former employees about the COBRA subsidies under the American Rescue Plan. Many of these folks may also be eligible for enhanced premium tax credits through the Affordable Care Act. CHIR’s Maanasa Kona walks through the different coverage options available.
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the individual blog post authors and do not represent the views of Georgetown University, the Center on Health Insurance Reforms, any organization that the author is affiliated with, or the opinions of any other author who publishes on this blog.
