Small Businesses Ditch Health Insurance as Costs Soar
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- The share of working-age adults with employer-based health coverage has fallen from 67% in 1998 to about 60% today, signaling a steady decades-long erosion
- Small business owners and workers describe their remaining insurance options as unaffordable, particularly plans carrying high out-of-pocket costs
- Rising premiums, driven by high hospital, doctor, and prescription drug prices, are consuming both company bottom lines and worker paychecks
- The exodus is fraying the uniquely American expectation that jobs include health protection — a system the source traces to World War II wage controls, industry opposition to government health care, and the largest tax-code break in the U.S.
- Desperate companies are eliminating traditional health benefits at an unprecedented pace, with STAT's reporting describing 'panic, despair, and anger' most acute among smaller shops and firms
Why it matters: If small employers — long the canary for U.S. employer-based coverage — keep dropping benefits, the roughly 60% of working-age adults who still get insurance through work face higher premiums, lower wages, or going uninsured. The shift strikes at the core of the uniquely American social contract tying health coverage to employment.
