Whether or not Obamacare is good for the country and good for North Carolina is a hotly debated topic. But for one group of North Carolinians, the uninsured workers, it is hard to imagine things can get much worse and the hope is that Obamacare will make things better.
It seems everyone is talking about a study released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation last week that analyzes state-level trends in employer-sponsored health insurance. The report finds that health insurance through work was on a steady decline nationwide well before the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) became a house-hold term. In North Carolina, the decline over the last 10 years has been particularly acute, with one of the biggest double-digit drops in employees covered by employer-sponsored insurance in the nation. Workers covered by company health plans fell by more than 13% in North Carolina, worse than nearly every other state (except South Carolina, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio).
An April 11th article in the News&Observer reported on the study, highlighting the trends in North Carolina, including the soaring healthcare costs and health insurance premium costs. The article notes that while the average premium for a family of four rose to nearly $14,000 in 2011 (almost double the cost in 2000), the percentage of workers under the age of 65 covered by employer-sponsored insurance dropped from 69% to 56% in the same time period. Read the article here.
Can this trend continue? Will healthcare reform make it better, or worse? There are three components of the ACA that may help to stall this trend and maybe even turn it around. (1) All employers with 50 or more full-time employees must offer affordable health insurance to their full-time employees or face hefty fines (hopefully discouraging large employers from not offering health plans). (2) Small employers (less than 50 full-time employees) that do offer health insurance to their full-time employees can receive a tax credit (hopefully incentivizing small employers to offer coverage). (3) Workers earning up to approximately $94,000 for a family of four, who are not offered health insurance by their employers, can get subsidies to purchase health insurance in the Exchange. The optimist would like to think these three provisions in action will change the trend in North Carolina. Unfortunately, only time will tell.