Substantial Churn In Health Insurance Offerings By Small Employers, 2014–15

Substantial Churn In Health Insurance Offerings By Small Employers, 2014–15

Health Insurance Coverage Among Small Employers Remains Turbulent, AHRQ Study Finds

Nearly 15 percent of small employers with 50 or fewer workers that offered health insurance in 2014 stopped offering coverage in 2015, a new study from AHRQ researchers concluded. But this trend was offset by a gain of 5.5 percent among small employers that did not offer coverage in 2014, according to the article published in Health Affairs. AHRQ researchers used a new data source, the 2014-2015 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey–Insurance Component longitudinal survey, to examine the dynamics of employer-sponsored health insurance coverage. Employers with fewer than 10 workers had the highest rate (19 percent) of dropping coverage. Access the abstract.

Substantial Churn In Health Insurance Offerings By Small Employers, 2014–15

1. Jessica P. Vistnes1,*, 
2. Frederick Rohde2, 
3. G. Edward Miller3 and 
4. Philip F. Cooper4

+Author Affiliations

1. ¹Jessica P. Vistnes (Jessica.Vistnes@ahrq.hhs.gov) is a senior economist in the Division of Research and Modeling, Center for Financing, Access, and Cost Trends, at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), in Rockville, Maryland.
2. ²Frederick Rohde is a survey statistician in the Division of Statistical Research and Methods, Center for Financing, Access, and Cost Trends, at AHRQ.
3. ³G. Edward Miller is deputy director of the Division of Research and Modeling, Center for Financing, Access, and Cost Trends, at AHRQ.
4. ⁴Philip F. Cooper is a senior economist in the Division of Research and Modeling, Center for Financing, Access, and Cost Trends, at AHRQ.

1. ↵*Corresponding author

Abstract

New data for 2014–15 from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey–Insurance Component longitudinal survey show substantial churn in insurance offers by small employers (those with fifty or fewer workers), with 14.6 percent of employers that offered insurance in 2014 having dropped it in 2015 and 5.5 percent of those that did not offer it adding coverage.