Employer health plans often omit part-timer workers

Several news outlets this weekend covered work-based insurance issues, including reaction to the Wal-Mart announcement that it would be cutting back coverage for new part-timers and what workers in a number of places should expect as their bosses roll out policies for the coming year.  

The Washington Post: Health-Care Coverage Still Eludes Some Part-Time Workers
The news came as a shock: Wal-Mart, the nation's largest private employer, would not offer health benefits to new part-time employees, the company said Friday. But perhaps it shouldn't have been so surprising, since the retailer was among a minority of U.S. businesses. Only 16 percent of employers offer health insurance to part-timers, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's most recent Employer Health Benefits Survey. The number increases to 42 percent among large employers. ... The health-care law that Congress passed last year is unlikely to change that. While part-time workers will have access to new, subsidized coverage on the individual market, the Obama administration's signature legislative achievement provides little incentive for employers to cover workers who are not full-time staff (Kliff, 10/22). 

Associated Press/BusinessWeek: Wal-Mart Cuts Some Health Care Coverage
The discounter, which employs more than 1.4 million workers, said that rising health care costs are forcing it to eliminate health care coverage for future part-time workers who work less than 24 hours a week. Many workers will also see their premiums rise, and the company will be reducing by half the amount it contributes for health care expenses that are not covered under their plan. Tobacco users will particularly be hit hard, seeing premiums increase by about 40 percent, the company said. Greg Rossiter, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said that the decision was not in response to the new health care law but rather to the harsh realities of escalating health care costs (D'Innocenzio, 10/21).

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Insurance Exchange Could Ease Health Care Cost For Small Businesses
The idea behind state health insurance exchanges is to pool small businesses and their employees with millions of other Americans to increase purchasing power and competition in the market. Open to businesses with up to 100 workers, exchanges would be designed to allow employers to choose their contribution levels to employee coverage, save money by spreading administrative costs across more companies and offer more plan choices from multiple insurers to fit people's individual needs (Williams, 10/23).

The Wall Street Journal: Choosing The Right Health-Care Plan
It's open-enrollment season, that time of year when most companies roll out changes to their benefit offerings. ... And for 2012, employers are once again stepping up their push to force workers to take more responsibility for their own costs and health-;though unlike this year, there will be few major changes related to the federal health-care overhaul. Still, there are plenty of tweaks to deal with. Many employees will face increased out-of-pocket expenses, which are the charges they pay for health-care services. Notably, there will be a jump in the use of high deductibles-;the upfront sums employees pay before coverage kicks in (Wilde Mathews, 10/22).