Download or read book Variation in Public Opinion on the Future of Employment Based Health Benefits written by Paul Fronstin and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines current public opinion surrounding the future of employment-based health coverage and how it varies by demographics, health status, and selected questions on satisfaction with health care and ratings of the health care system in the United States. The public is in large part confident that employers and unions will continue to offer health coverage following enactment of the federal health reform law. In 2011, 57 percent of individuals with employment-based coverage were extremely or very confident that their employer or union would continue to offer health coverage. However, they are not confident that they could afford to purchase coverage on their own even if they were given the money by plan sponsors. In 2011, 20 percent were extremely or very confident that they could afford to purchase coverage. When it comes to picking a health plan, the majority of the population is very or somewhat confident in their ability to compare different plan options and choose the best plan, while nearly 1 in 5 are extremely confident or not confident that they could compare different plans and choose the best plan. Individuals who are most confident in the future availability of employment-based health benefits and in their ability to afford and choose the best plan are those who are more educated, have higher income, are more satisfied with their health coverage, and rate the U.S. health care system higher. Despite the low confidence levels that they could afford to purchase coverage, very few individuals reported that they are not likely to purchase coverage if employers and unions stopped offering it. The data come from the EBRI/MGA 2011 Health Confidence Survey (HCS), which examines a broad spectrum of health care issues, including Americans' satisfaction with health care today, their confidence in the future of the health care system and the Medicare program, and their attitudes toward health care reform. The PDF for the above title, published in the December 2011 issue of EBRI Notes, also contains the fulltext of another December 2011 EBRI Notes article abstracted on SSRN: “Retirement Age Expectations of Older Americans Between 2006 and 2010.”

Download or read book Public Opinion on the Future of Employment Based Health Benefits written by Paul Fronstin and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines public opinion surrounding the future of employment-based health coverage. Data come from the EBRI/MGA 2011 Health Confidence Survey (HCS), a survey that examines a broad spectrum of health care issues, including Americans' satisfaction with health care today, their confidence in the future of the health care system and the Medicare program, and their attitudes toward health care reform. Enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010 has raised many questions about whether employers will continue to offer health coverage in the future. In 2014, state-based health insurance exchanges will be available to individuals without employment-based coverage. These exchanges change the playing field in that workers will no longer need to rely on their employer to obtain health coverage. Workers will benefit from a number of insurance market reforms, such as guaranteed issue, modified community rating, subsidies, and increased choice of health plan. Over the long-term, public confidence that employers and unions will continue to offer health coverage has fallen. In 2011, 57 percent of individuals with employment-based coverage were extremely or very confident that their employer or union would continue to offer health coverage, down from 68 percent in 2000. Most of the erosion in confidence occurred between 2000 and 2002. Individuals have a low level of confidence that they can afford to purchase health coverage on their own even if their employer or union gave them the money to do so. In 2011, 20 percent were extremely or very confident that they could afford to purchase coverage; 30 percent were somewhat confident; and 48 percent were not too or not at all confident. According to the 2011 HCS, individual confidence in one's ability to compare different plan options and choose the best plan is neither high nor low. When it comes to confidence levels in an objective rating system being able to help an individual choose the best available plan, again, most people are somewhere in the middle. The vast majority of the population, 62 percent, reported that they were not at all familiar with health insurance exchanges, a key provision in the health reform law of 2010 (PPACA). However, the public does have opinions about the oversight of them: A majority of the population is not confident in the ability of the federal or state governments to run the exchanges, and 42 percent are not confident in private insurers' ability to run them. The PDF for the above title, published in the November 2011 issue of EBRI Notes, also contains the fulltext of another November 2011 EBRI Notes article abstracted on SSRN: “How Do Financial Literacy and Financial Behavior Vary by State?”

Download or read book The Future of the Public s Health in the 21st Century written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2003-02-01 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.

Download or read book Views on Employment Based Health Benefits written by Paul Fronstin and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines public opinion surrounding employment-based health coverage. Data come from the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Mathew Greenwald & Associates, Inc. 2012 Health Confidence Survey (HCS), which examines a broad spectrum of health care issues, including Americans' satisfaction with health care, confidence in the future of the nation's health care system and the Medicare program, as well as their attitudes toward certain aspects of health care reform. Earlier waves of the HCS are examined, as well. Enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has raised questions about whether employers will continue to offer health coverage to their workers in the future. Yet the importance of benefits as a criterion in choosing a job remains high, and health insurance in particular continues to be, by far, the most important employee benefit to workers. The 2012 EBRI/MGA Health Confidence Survey (HCS) finds most Americans are satisfied with the health benefits they have now and prefer not to change the mix of benefits and wages. Three-quarters (73 percent) report that they are satisfied with the health benefits they currently receive while 15 percent say they would trade wages to get more health benefits, and 9 percent say they would surrender health benefits for higher wages. Choice of health plans is important to workers, and they would like more choices, but most workers expressed confidence that their employers or unions have selected the best available health plan. Moreover, they are not as confident in their ability to choose the best available plan if their employers or unions did, in fact, stop offering coverage. Furthermore, individuals are not highly comfortable that they could use an objective rating system to choose health insurance nor are they extremely confident that a rating system could help them choose the best health insurance; considerations that will be useful as employers consider whether to continue offering coverage, and if they do, which options to offer in the plan. If current tax preferences were to change, and employment-based coverage became taxable, 39 percent of individuals say they would continue with their current level of coverage, compared with 29 percent who indicated that preference in 2011. The PDF for the above title, published in the December 2012 issue of EBRI Notes, also contains the fulltext of another December 2012 EBRI Notes article abstracted on SSRN: “Employee Tenure Trends, 1983-2012.”

Download or read book Employers Workers and the Future of Employment Based Health Benefits written by Stephen Blakely and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper summarizes presentations at EBRI's 65th biannual policy forum, held in Washington, DC, on Dec. 10, 2009, on the topic, “Employers, Workers, and the Future of Employment-Based Health Benefits.” The forum brought together a wide range of economic, benefits, management, and labor experts to share their expertise at a time when major health reform legislation was being debated in Congress. The focus: How might this affect the way that the vast majority of Americans currently get their health insurance coverage? Most people who have health insurance coverage in the United States get it through their job: In 2008, about 61 percent of the nonelderly population had employment-based health benefits, 19 percent were covered by public programs, 6 percent had individual coverage, and 17 percent were uninsured. One point of consensus among both labor and management representatives: Imposing a tax on health benefits is likely to cause major cuts in health benefits and might result in structural changes in the employment-based benefits system. A common disappointment voiced at the forum was that the initial effort to reform the delivery and cost of health care in America gradually became focused on just financing and coverage of health insurance. The ever-rising cost of health insurance affects different employers and workers in different ways--with small employers and low-wage workers being the most disadvantaged. Small employers, if they offer health benefits at all, pay proportionately more than large employers for the same health coverage. While large employers tend to express continued commitment to health benefits, small employers see themselves strongly disadvantaged by the current system. Consultants report many employers privately want to drop benefits to control costs, but realize there are risks to doing so and none wants to be first. Employers express strong interest in wellness and disease management programs as a way to control costs, even though some experts say there is no evidence these work. Consumer-driven health plans are expected to continue their slow rate of growth.

Download or read book The Future of Public Health written by Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1988-01-15 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Nation has lost sight of its public health goals and has allowed the system of public health to fall into 'disarray'," from The Future of Public Health. This startling book contains proposals for ensuring that public health service programs are efficient and effective enough to deal not only with the topics of today, but also with those of tomorrow. In addition, the authors make recommendations for core functions in public health assessment, policy development, and service assurances, and identify the level of government--federal, state, and local--at which these functions would best be handled.

Download or read book Views on Employment Based Health Benefits written by Paul Fronstin and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines public opinion surrounding employment-based health coverage. It uses data from the 2013 and 2014 Health and Voluntary Workplace Benefits Survey (WBS), conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald & Associates, as well as historical data from the Health Confidence Survey (HCS). Both surveys examine a broad spectrum of health care issues, including workers' satisfaction with health care today, their confidence in the future of the nation's health care system and the Medicare program, as well as their attitudes toward workplace benefits. Enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) has raised questions about whether employers will continue to offer health coverage to their workers in the future. Yet, the importance of benefits as criteria in choosing a job remains high, and health insurance in particular continues to be, by far, the most important employee benefit to workers. Most workers are satisfied with the health benefits they have now, although nearly one-third would change the mix of wages and health benefits, which may reflect an intensifying desire for real wage growth. Choice of health plans is important to workers, and they would like more choices, but most workers express confidence that their employers or unions have selected the best available health plan. Moreover, they are not as confident in their ability to choose the best available plan if their employers or unions did, in fact, stop offering coverage. Individuals are not highly comfortable that they could use an objective rating system to choose health insurance nor are they extremely confident that a rating system could help them choose the best health insurance.

Download or read book Views on Employment Based Health Benefits written by Paul Fronstin and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines public opinion surrounding employment-based health coverage. It uses data from the 2013 Health and Voluntary Workplace Benefits Survey (WBS), conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald & Associates, as well as historical data from the Health Confidence Survey (HCS). Both surveys examine a broad spectrum of health care issues, including workers' satisfaction with health care today, their confidence in the future of the nation's health care system and the Medicare program, as well as their attitudes toward workplace benefits. Enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) has raised questions about whether employers will continue to offer health coverage to their workers in the future. Yet, the importance of benefits in choosing a job remains high, and health insurance in particular continues to be, by far, the most important employee benefit to workers. Most workers are satisfied with the health benefits they have now and express little interest in changing the current mix of benefits and wages offered by their employers. Three-quarters (74 percent) report that they are satisfied with the health benefits they currently receive, while 12 percent say they would trade wages to get more health benefits, and 14 percent say they would surrender some health benefits for higher wages. Fewer workers reported being satisfied with the mix of health benefits and wages when the same question was asked in 2004, although the percentage satisfied with the current mix is unchanged from 2012. If current tax preferences for employment-based health benefits were to change, and the benefits were to become taxable, 39 percent of individuals say they would continue with their current level of coverage, virtually unchanged from 40 percent in 2012 but up from 31 percent who indicated that preference in 2011. Despite expressing a desire for more choice of health plans, individuals are not highly comfortable that they could use an objective rating system, such as that provided by the health insurance exchanges, to choose health insurance, nor are they extremely confident that a rating system could help them choose the best health insurance. The PDF for the above title, published in the December 2013 issue of EBRI Notes, also contains the full text of another December 2013 EBRI Notes article abstracted on SSRN: “How Much Would it Take? Achieving Retirement Income Equivalency between Final-Average-Pay Defined Benefit Plan Accruals and Voluntary Enrollment 401(k) Plans in the Private Sector.”

Download or read book Views on Employment based Health Benefits written by Paul Fronstin and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines workers' opinions surrounding employment-based health coverage. It uses data from the 2013-2015 Health and Voluntary Workplace Benefits Survey (WBS), conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Greenwald & Associates, as well as historical data from the Health Confidence Survey (HCS). Both surveys examine a broad spectrum of health care issues, including workers' satisfaction with health care today, their confidence in the future of the nation's health care system and the Medicare program, as well as their attitudes toward workplace benefits. Enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) has continued to raise questions about whether employers will continue to offer health coverage to their workers in the future. Yet, the importance of benefits as a factor in choosing a job remains high, and health insurance in particular continues to be, by far, the most important employee benefit to workers. Most workers are satisfied with the health benefits they have now, although nearly one-third would change the mix of wages and health benefits, which may reflect an intensifying desire for real wage growth. Choice of health plans is important to workers, and they would like more choices, but most workers express confidence that their employers or unions have selected the best available health plan. Moreover, they are not as confident in their ability to choose the best available plan if their employers or unions did, in fact, stop offering coverage. Furthermore, individuals are not highly comfortable that they could use an objective rating system to choose health insurance, nor are they extremely confident that a rating system could help them choose the best health insurance. This information will be useful as employers consider whether to continue offering coverage, and if they do, which options to offer in the plan.

Download or read book Care Without Coverage written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2002-06-20 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many Americans believe that people who lack health insurance somehow get the care they really need. Care Without Coverage examines the real consequences for adults who lack health insurance. The study presents findings in the areas of prevention and screening, cancer, chronic illness, hospital-based care, and general health status. The committee looked at the consequences of being uninsured for people suffering from cancer, diabetes, HIV infection and AIDS, heart and kidney disease, mental illness, traumatic injuries, and heart attacks. It focused on the roughly 30 million-one in seven-working-age Americans without health insurance. This group does not include the population over 65 that is covered by Medicare or the nearly 10 million children who are uninsured in this country. The main findings of the report are that working-age Americans without health insurance are more likely to receive too little medical care and receive it too late; be sicker and die sooner; and receive poorer care when they are in the hospital, even for acute situations like a motor vehicle crash.

Download or read book Communities in Action written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2017-04-27 with total page 583 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Download or read book The Future of Nursing 2020 2030 written by National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine and published by . This book was released on 2021-09-30 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The decade ahead will test the nation's nearly 4 million nurses in new and complex ways. Nurses live and work at the intersection of health, education, and communities. Nurses work in a wide array of settings and practice at a range of professional levels. They are often the first and most frequent line of contact with people of all backgrounds and experiences seeking care and they represent the largest of the health care professions. A nation cannot fully thrive until everyone - no matter who they are, where they live, or how much money they make - can live their healthiest possible life, and helping people live their healthiest life is and has always been the essential role of nurses. Nurses have a critical role to play in achieving the goal of health equity, but they need robust education, supportive work environments, and autonomy. Accordingly, at the request of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, on behalf of the National Academy of Medicine, an ad hoc committee under the auspices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conducted a study aimed at envisioning and charting a path forward for the nursing profession to help reduce inequities in people's ability to achieve their full health potential. The ultimate goal is the achievement of health equity in the United States built on strengthened nursing capacity and expertise. By leveraging these attributes, nursing will help to create and contribute comprehensively to equitable public health and health care systems that are designed to work for everyone. The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity explores how nurses can work to reduce health disparities and promote equity, while keeping costs at bay, utilizing technology, and maintaining patient and family-focused care into 2030. This work builds on the foundation set out by The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health (2011) report.

Download or read book The 2009 Health Confidence Survey written by Paul Fronstin and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper presents findings from the 2009 Health Confidence Survey (HCS), the 12th wave of an annual survey that examines a broad spectrum of health care issues, including Americans' satisfaction with health care today, their confidence in the future of the health care system and the Medicare program, and their attitudes toward health care reform. Findings from the 2009 Health Confidence Survey indicate that Americans have already formed strong opinions regarding various aspects of health reform, even before details have been released regarding various key factors. These issues include health insurance market reform, the availability of a public plan option, mandates on employers and individuals, subsidized coverage for the low-income population, changes to the tax treatment of job-based health benefits, and regulatory oversight of health care. These opinions may change as details surface, especially as they concern financing options. In the absence of such details, the 2009 HCS finds generally strong support for the concepts of health reform options that are currently on the table. Individuals with employment-based health benefits are confident that employers will continue to offer such benefits. They are much less confident that they would be able to afford coverage on their own, even if employers gave them the money they currently spend on health benefits. Those experiencing health cost increases tend to say these increases have negatively affected their household finances. In particular, they indicate that increased health care costs have resulted in a decrease in contributions to a retirement plan (32 percent) and other savings (53 percent) and in difficulty paying for basic necessities (29 percent) and other bills (37 percent). Many consumers report they are changing the way they use the health care system in response to rising health care costs. Roughly 80 percent of those with higher out-of-pocket expenses say these increased costs have led them to try to take better care of themselves and choose generic drugs more often. One-quarter also say they did not fill or skipped doses of their prescribed medications in response to increased costs.

Download or read book Health Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2018-04-02 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers two programs that provide benefits based on disability: the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. This report analyzes health care utilizations as they relate to impairment severity and SSA's definition of disability. Health Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination identifies types of utilizations that might be good proxies for "listing-level" severity; that is, what represents an impairment, or combination of impairments, that are severe enough to prevent a person from doing any gainful activity, regardless of age, education, or work experience.

Download or read book The Future of Nursing written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2011-02-08 with total page 700 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Future of Nursing explores how nurses' roles, responsibilities, and education should change significantly to meet the increased demand for care that will be created by health care reform and to advance improvements in America's increasingly complex health system. At more than 3 million in number, nurses make up the single largest segment of the health care work force. They also spend the greatest amount of time in delivering patient care as a profession. Nurses therefore have valuable insights and unique abilities to contribute as partners with other health care professionals in improving the quality and safety of care as envisioned in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enacted this year. Nurses should be fully engaged with other health professionals and assume leadership roles in redesigning care in the United States. To ensure its members are well-prepared, the profession should institute residency training for nurses, increase the percentage of nurses who attain a bachelor's degree to 80 percent by 2020, and double the number who pursue doctorates. Furthermore, regulatory and institutional obstacles-including limits on nurses' scope of practice-should be removed so that the health system can reap the full benefit of nurses' training, skills, and knowledge in patient care. In this book, the Institute of Medicine makes recommendations for an action-oriented blueprint for the future of nursing.

Download or read book Employment Based Health Benefits written by Paul Fronstin and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The employment-based health benefits system established its roots many years ago. It was during World War II that many more employers began to offer health benefits. Recently, however, both the percentage of workers with employment-based health benefits and the comprehensiveness of such coverage have been declining. This paper examines recent trends in employment-based health benefits. It also considers the likely future of this important workplace benefit in light of shifts from defined benefit to defined contribution models of employee benefits and with regard to the implementation of health reform.

Download or read book Employment Based Health Insurance written by Paul Fronstin and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Issue Brief provides ...