Micro Businesses Continue to Drop Health Coverage: EBRI

100-999 employees

2017: 96.3%

2016: 95.1%

2008: 95.4%

Reasons

Fronstin did not discuss the reasons for the continuing decline in the micro-employer health coverage offer rate.

He suggested that the coverage offer rate might be increasing for larger employers partly because health coverage cost increases have slowed, and partly because the unemployment rate has dropped.

“When unemployment is low, recruiting and retaining workers becomes a bigger challenge for employers, including some smaller employers, which in turn often means improving compensation and benefits,” Fronstin wrote.

In the past, however, many small employers have denied seeing much of a connection between offering health benefits and business performance. In 2003, for example, EBRI polled small employers. Fewer than one-third of the participating employers agreed  that offering health benefits would have a helpful effect on employee recruitment, employee retention, employee attitude, employee health or absenteeism, according to Fronstin.

A full copy of the EBRI report is available here.

—Read EBRI Posts 2015 Health Savings Account Data on ThinkAdvisor.

We have a Facebook news feed. Visit https://www.facebook.com/ThinkAdvisorLifeHealth