Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Businesses developing HSA option for part-time employees
[Don Jacobson, "Uniprise, 50 big firms develop insurance option for part-timers," Business North, 13 March 2005.]
In an interesting development geared towards addressing the uninsured problem, a number of major companies are working together to offer their part-time employees lower-cost coverage than they could obtain on their own:
The perception of part-time work is changing. It used to mean after-school jobs for teenagers and college students looking to make some spending money. But working part-time is turning into a way of life for adults, one that may not be voluntary, and usually lacks health benefits.
In response, some Fortune 500 companies who employ millions of uninsured part-timers are trying to put a dent into that situation by pooling their buying power to offer affordable health coverage to those employees.
The new plan, called National Health Access, is being forwarded by Uniprise and 50 major companies including Sears, General Mills, IBM, General Electric and Caterpillar, as well as Parker-Hannifin.
Slated to start this fall, the program promises steep premium discounts for health insurance to part-timers through a pooling of the companies’ buying power.
Coordinated by the HR Policy Association, the professional organization of big-company human resources managers, the plan calls for no financial contribution from the employers other than a one-time $20,000 fee, so employees would pay for 100 percent of their premiums. But the rates they pay would be substantially lower than what they could find on the open market.
“This will be a ‘guaranteed-issue’ policy that will be aimed at low-income workers who might not be able to otherwise afford insurance, but you’d still get broad access to physicians in the UnitedHealth Care network. The higher-level plans have a health savings account feature. You’ve got 45 million uninsured people in America, and this is a good effort by employers coming together to do something about it,” [Marisa Milton, HR Policy Association’s Washington-based director of government relations] said.
[Matthew Hisrich, "HSAs are increasing Americans' health coverage," The Topeka Capital-Journal, 26 September 2004.]
[Don Jacobson, "Uniprise, 50 big firms develop insurance option for part-timers," Business North, 13 March 2005.]
In an interesting development geared towards addressing the uninsured problem, a number of major companies are working together to offer their part-time employees lower-cost coverage than they could obtain on their own:
The perception of part-time work is changing. It used to mean after-school jobs for teenagers and college students looking to make some spending money. But working part-time is turning into a way of life for adults, one that may not be voluntary, and usually lacks health benefits.
In response, some Fortune 500 companies who employ millions of uninsured part-timers are trying to put a dent into that situation by pooling their buying power to offer affordable health coverage to those employees.
The new plan, called National Health Access, is being forwarded by Uniprise and 50 major companies including Sears, General Mills, IBM, General Electric and Caterpillar, as well as Parker-Hannifin.
Slated to start this fall, the program promises steep premium discounts for health insurance to part-timers through a pooling of the companies’ buying power.
Coordinated by the HR Policy Association, the professional organization of big-company human resources managers, the plan calls for no financial contribution from the employers other than a one-time $20,000 fee, so employees would pay for 100 percent of their premiums. But the rates they pay would be substantially lower than what they could find on the open market.
“This will be a ‘guaranteed-issue’ policy that will be aimed at low-income workers who might not be able to otherwise afford insurance, but you’d still get broad access to physicians in the UnitedHealth Care network. The higher-level plans have a health savings account feature. You’ve got 45 million uninsured people in America, and this is a good effort by employers coming together to do something about it,” [Marisa Milton, HR Policy Association’s Washington-based director of government relations] said.
[Matthew Hisrich, "HSAs are increasing Americans' health coverage," The Topeka Capital-Journal, 26 September 2004.]
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