Self-insured employer health plans: prevalence, profile, provisions, and premiums.

Prevalence of Employer Self-Insured Health Benefits

Many large employers prefer to self-insure health plans offered to employees rather than purchase them from insurance companies to save costs and to avoid the burden of complying with varying state mandates. This concerns state governments because they cannot directly regulate self-insured plans. This article describes the prevalence of employer self-insurance for the nation and by state in 199...

History of Health Insurance in the United States

Health insurance, as we generally think of it in the United States, began with the Great Depression in the 1930s. In this chapter, we review the history of health insurance and demonstrate how that history is linked to current health insurance developments. Predating private health insurance were efforts at government-sponsored coverage for workplace injury and a tradition of industrial sicknes...

MEWAs: the threat of plan insolvency and other challenges.

C ongress and some state policymakers are considering legislation to promote the growth of association health plans and other types of “multiple employer welfare arrangements” (MEWAs) as a way to expand access to affordable health insurance coverage.These plans band together self-employed people, small businesses, and, in some cases, larger businesses to purchase insurance—all seeking to save m...

Recent trends in self-insured employer health plans.

Insurance Transitions Following the First ACA Open Enrollment Period.

While most of the Affordable Care Act's (ACA's) coverage-related provisions took effect in January 2014, there is limited information on insurance transitions that occurred in the period before and after these changes became operational. In Insurance Transitions Following the First ACA Open Enrollment Period, the authors examine insurance transitions between September 2013 and November 2014 usi...