|
2002 SCI Policy Planning Grant (closed)
Awarded to: Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy (DHCFP)
The grant was awarded to evaluate coverage options for certain health and human services workers. The goals were to identify and define the target population through surveys and research, and to evaluate the feasibility of various approaches to providing affordable coverage. The state worked in collaboration with a broad group of stakeholders
As a result of the grant, which concluded in 2004, the project team learned that this group tends to lack coverage because their wages are lower than average and thus they must contribute a higher percentage of their wages to employer-sponsored insurance than do other employees. The project underscored that, ironically, even individuals in the health field have difficulty accessing care.
The team's work helped to identify solutions that, for these workers and other low-income employees like them, would most likely require either a lower-cost health insurance product than those already on the market or subsidies toward the purchase of current packages. On the other hand, pooling these health and human service organizations would not likely be effective, because premiums for these employers are not necessarily higher than those of others.
Some important findings from the grant team's employer survey include:
- Nearly 95 percent of health and human service employers offer health insurance (compared with 68 percent of all state employers);
- The median take-up rate for these employers was lower than the all-employer rate (65.4 percent vs. 84.5 percent, respectively);
- Employees working for health and human service employers are required to contribute a slightly higher percentage toward individual and family premiums than all employees statewide.
The policy planning grant also helped fund three focus groups with health and human service workers, which found:
- Many participants believed that premiums, co-payments, and deductibles for health insurance are too high and sometimes a barrier to purchasing coverage and receiving care. The participants seemed unwilling to give up many benefits or coverage in order to lower the cost, however.
- Participants responded that taking preventive measures such as eating healthy and exercising will keep their individual health care costs down by reducing the need for health care utilization.
- When presented with different options for designing a more affordable benefits package, it was difficult for groups to reach any consensus about which product was best.
|
