Employer-Sponsored Health Plans May Provide Less Coverage Than Is Believed, Studies Indicate.

reports on its website that employer-sponsored health plans which cover about 50 percent of Americans are “held up to be the gold standard of coverage,” yet “even those with job-based plans can face big bills for doctors’ visits and drugs, two new studies have found.” An analysis published by the Health Care Cost Institute revealed that employees “and their families who sought care shelled out an average of nearly $1,200 in out-of-pocket costs in 2017.” Such costs, which include “deductibles, copays and co-insurance,” are “up nearly 15% from five years earlier.” Meanwhile, a study released last week by the Commonwealth Fund found that some “28% of adults with health insurance through their employer were underinsured in 2018, up from 20% just four years earlier and from 10% in 2003.” https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/12/health/employer-health-insurance-study/index.html