Fewer Workers in Health Plans

WASHINGTON —  A growing number of American workers at companies offering health insurance are turning it down because of a 42% jump in recent premiums, a nonpartisan health think tank said Thursday.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said 3 million fewer workers eligible for employer-sponsored health plans enrolled in 2003 compared with 1998.

“This report should be as alarming to Congress as it is to the American people because employer-sponsored health insurance is the backbone of America’s healthcare system,” said Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, chief executive of the foundation.

“As costs go up, fewer individuals and families have insurance and fewer businesses can afford to provide coverage for their employees.”

The national average increase in individual premiums during the same period was $1,027, or from $2,454 in 1998 dollars adjusted for inflation to $3,481 in 2003, the foundation said.

Employers, which pay the majority of health insurance costs for their workers, are also seeing a substantial increase in expenses. In both 1998 and 2005, employers paid 82% of the annual premium cost for their workers’ health coverage, it said.

“As healthcare costs rise, large and small companies are finding it hard to offer affordable health insurance,” Lavizzo- Mourey said.

Nationwide, 80.3% of eligible private-sector workers enrolled in their company’s health insurance in 2003, down 5 percentage points from 1998, the group said.