Five years ago, the late, famed health care economics scholar, Uwe Reinhardt, wrote the following about what he called "the illogic of employer sponsored health insurance,"

Imagine yourself in a bar where a pickpocket takes money out of your wallet and with it buys you a glass of chardonnay. Although you would have preferred a pinot noir, you decide not to look that gift horse in the mouth and thank the stranger profusely for the kindness, assuming he paid for it. You might feel differently, of course, if you knew that you actually had paid for it yourself.

A New Day Brings New Scrutiny To Workplace Health Plans

Last month, an article by Drew Altman, titled, For low-income people, employer health coverage is worse than ACA, explored workplace health insurance affordability issues for low wage workers and workers with chronic illnesses. Altman writes:

We tend to think of everyone with employer coverage as one big group, but it’s really lower wage workers — and, while it’s a different subject, also people with major illnesses — who take it on the chin in the current private health insurance system. They are also the group with employer coverage who would benefit the most from a Medicare-for-All style plan.

The bottom line: Employer-based coverage is by far the largest source of health insurance, and it now provides the least financial protection for lower income workers who need it most.

Altman gets to the heart of the matter when he writes, "We debate affordability in the ACA marketplaces a lot, but we don’t talk about this far larger problem much, if at all."

A week after Altman's article, a report from The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP)—a public policy think tank co-founded by Obamacare critic, Avik Roy, designated employer sponsored health insurance as the worst form of private health insurance in the country in terms of underlying cost, sustainability, freedom of choice, and consumer-driven incentives. Worse than individually purchased health insurance, federal employees health benefits, and Medicare Advantage—the country’s other private health insurance programs.

No More Hiding

Employment-based health insurance rarely receives criticism, especially from free-market advocates like Roy. This has allowed the health insurance status quo to portray workplace health plans as a success. But the push for universal health insurance or Medicare For All has inevitably put a spotlight on the ongoing failures of employer-sponsored health insurance. Take a look at the headlines and stories about workplace health insurance over the last several months, and you'll see that the scrutiny of these plans is intensifying.

• The Trump Administration wants to know the rates insurers negotiate with hospitals - NPR
• The Department of Health and Human Services wants employers to help control health care costs – HHS website
• Most Americans would have more money with socialized health care – Quartz
• Employer Health Insurance Is Getting Worse – MotherJones
• Employees Start To Feel The Squeeze Of High Deductible Health Plans – NPR
• Health insurance deductibles soar, leaving Americans with unaffordable bills – Los Angeles Times
• It's employer-sponsored health plans that are getting stingier – Washington Post
• The Health Care Crisis Has Spread to Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance - Intelligencer

Tags: Medicaid For All, universal health care, employer sponsored health insurance