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Companies Plan to Sponsor Health Coverage for Uninsured
Distributed by Bob Parks, Director of Membership
Services, Michigan Association of United Ways, January 29, 2005
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An article, by Milt Freudenheim in the January 27, 2005 edition
of the New York Times announced that 60 large employers are
joining together to sponsor low-cost health insurance options.
The program, to begin in September 2005, will be offered for at
least two years and is intended to cover uninsured part-time and
temporary workers, contractors, consultants and early retirees,
who typically are not eligible for employer health plans. The
sponsors include General Electric, IBM, McDonald's and Sears,
Roebuck.
Promoting the low-cost plans will begin in April and May to 3
million eligible workers, about 7 percent of the 45 million
uninsured Americans. They hope that several hundred thousand
people will sign up at the start.
The plans will range widely in cost from $5 a month for a card
that provides users with discounts for doctors and pharmacies to
more than $300 a month for a high-deductible plan that covers
major medical and hospital expenses.
UnitedHealth Group will offer the four lowest-cost options in
all 50 states. United Health and Humana will offer the major
medical policies in states where they have been approved by
regulators.
Beginning in September, all participants in the program will
receive a card providing discounts from doctors, pharmacies and
hospitals.
In recent surveys, uninsured workers said they would appreciate
having a low-cost discount card. "Mothers wanted a card so they
could take a child to a pediatrician instead of an emergency
room," said Greg A. Lee, senior vice president of Sears, which
has 100,000 part-time employees.
A committee that developed the low-cost package under the
auspices of the HR Policy Association, a group of senior
officials of large companies, said the association hoped that
more companies would join the original 60 corporate sponsors.
More company involvement may allow a lowering of the cost of the
program
Leaders in the group expressed hope that government policy
makers might consider this approach in making health coverage
more affordable.
A representative from Hewitt Associates said the number of
uninsured people will rise significantly in the next five years
as employment continues the shift from manufacturing with strong
unions to nonunion service jobs, often in small companies that
do not offer health benefits. Even large businesses, he noted,
are dropping retiree medical coverage. "It is extraordinarily
important," he said, "to address the issue of the uninsured for
social, economic and even moral reasons."
The article is available at
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/27/business/27care.html?th.
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