Employer-Sponsored Health Coverage

Most Americans rely on their employers for health insurance. In 1997, of the 167.5 million nonelderly Americans with private health insurance, 151.7 million belonged to employer-provided health plans.1 In response to the escalating cost of health insurance coverage in the 1980s, employers began devising new strategies of cost containment. These included contracting with health plans that practiced a stringent form of managed care, substituting cheaper forms of health coverage for more expensive ones, limiting employees' choice of health plans, and shifting costs to employees in a variety of ways. These measures have stabilized health insurance costs for employers. However, they . . .