Employment Does Not Equal Health Insurance
In the past, employment was basically associated with health insurance, as most companies used health care benfits to attract employees and nearly everyone could get coverage with their job. Nowadays things have changed drastically, and many more workers are without insurance, even if their employer offers it. Part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation sponsored Cover the Uninsured Week was a look at how statistics have changed over the years. Today, as many as 1 in 5 workers are uninsured, up from 1 in 7 back in the early 1990′s. Much of this is attributed to rising premium costs, meaning that employers are forced to make their workers carry more of the burden of their health care coverage. Often this is a burden workers cannot afford to carry. Will Obama’s planned reforms bring a change to the direction of this trend?