Back
Email Updates |
|
|
Font Size:
|
||||
|
|
|
||||
|
STATISTICAL BRIEF #47:
Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance for Large Employers in the Private Sector, by Industry Classification, 2002
Highlights
- In 2002, 62.7 percent of private sector employees enrolled in health insurance plans that were offered by their large employers. There was substantial variation in the enrollment rates by industry classification for workers at large employers.
- In 2002, 45.5 percent of private sector employees enrolled in single coverage health insurance plans that were offered by their large employers. There was substantial variation among large employers in the single coverage enrollment rates by industry classification.
- The average employee premium contribution per enrolled employee for single coverage across large private employers was $591.
- The average employee premium contribution per enrolled employee for family coverage (family of four) across large private sector employers was $1,955.
Introduction
Employer-sponsored health insurance for current workers is one of the primary sources of health insurance coverage in the United States. According to data from the Insurance Component of the 2002 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-IC), approximately 98.4 million of the 111.5 million employees from the private sector worked in firms where the employer offered health insurance. Of those who worked where health insurance was offered, approximately 61.6 million were enrolled. (Data not shown in figures.)
This Statistical Brief presents estimates, by industry classification, on the percentage of employees who worked for large private sector employers (firms with 50 or more employees) who offered health insurance and of employees working in such firms who enrolled in offered health insurance plans. The brief also provides estimates on the average employee contributions towards premiums for single coverage and for family coverage. Only those estimates that had a statistically significant difference from the national average at the 0.05 percent significance level are noted in the text.
Among the large private sector employers, 97.8 percent of all employees worked where health insurance was offered (estimate not shown). These rates exhibited little variation across the different industry classifications. Alternatively, the enrollment rates and the employee costs for employer-sponsored health insurance varied significantly by industry classification across these large private sector employers.
Findings
Among the 80.1 million employees who worked for large private sector employers in 2002, 97.8 percent worked where the employer offered health insurance (estimates not shown). Among the employees of large employers where health insurance was offered, 62.7 percent enrolled (figure 1). The enrollment rates among large employers ranged from 42.1 percent for employees in the Other Services industry to 82.3 percent in the Mining and Manufacturing industry. Both these industries differed significantly from the national average. Among the other industries, Financial Services and Real Estate and Wholesale Trade had significantly higher than average enrollment rates for large employers of 78.0 percent and 76.3 percent, respectively. Retail Trade had a significantly lower than average enrollment rate of 43.3 percent among its large employers.
Among the employees in large private sector firms that offered health insurance, 45.5 percent (figure 2) selected single coverage. The enrollment rates for large employers ranged from 37.9 percent for employees in the Utilities and Transportation industry and 38.3 percent for the Mining and Manufacturing industries to 54.4 percent for the employees in the Other Services and 51.5 percent in the Retail Trade industries. These single coverage enrollment rates differed significantly from the national average for large employers (figure 2).
Average employee contributions towards premiums for large private sector employers in 2002 were $591 (figure 3) for single coverage and $1,955 (figure 4) for family of four coverage. Furthermore, there was significant variation in the average employee premium contributions by industry classification among large employers. Employees working for large employers in the Mining and Manufacturing sector required the lowest single and the lowest family premium contributions, at $485 for single coverage (figure 3) and $1,349 for family of four coverage (figure 4). Average premium contributions for single coverage in the Wholesale Trade industry were significantly lower than the national average, at $500 (figure 3), while average premium contributions for family coverage were significantly lower in the Utilities and Transportation industry, at $1,475 (figure 4.) Alternatively, average premium contributions for employees in large firms in the Other Services sector required the highest single coverage and the highest family premium contribution, at $702 (figure 3) and $2,465 (figure 4), respectively. Average premium contributions for employees in large firms in the Retail Trade industry were also significantly higher than the national average for large employers, at $695 for single coverage (figure 3) and $2,316 for family coverage (figure 4).
Data Source
This Statistical Brief summarizes data from the 2002 MEPS-IC. The data are available on the MEPS Web site (http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/)or have been produced using special computation runs on the confidential MEPS-IC data available at the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
Definitions
In this Statistical Brief, an employer is defined as a private sector firm. A firm is defined as a business entity that controls one or more business establishments or locations. Consequently, an employer can have multiple work locations. Only large employers with 50 or more employees across all their locations were included in this analysis.
The classification by industry is based upon the North American Industrial Classification System.
About MEPS-IC
MEPS-IC is a survey of business establishments and governments that collects information on employer-sponsored health insurance, such as whether insurance is offered, enrollments, types of plans, and premiums. The survey is conducted annually by the U.S. Bureau of the Census under the sponsorship of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The yearly response rate has averaged 78 percent for in-scope sample units. Approximately 4 percent of the original sample has been out-of-scope in a typical year. A total sample of 42,000 establishments was selected for the 2002 survey, prior to accounting for losses due to non-response and out-of-scope cases.
For more information on MEPS-IC, see MEPS Methodology Reports 6, 8, and 10 under MEPS publications at http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_stats/publications.jsp and the MEPS-IC Technical Appendix at http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/survey_comp/ic_technical_notes.shtml.
Suggested Citation
Sommers, J. Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance for Large Employers in the Private Sector, by Industry Classification, 2002. Statistical Brief #47. July 2004. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st47/stat47.shtml
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||
