ABSTRACT
A mid-1991 survey of fifteen top group health insurers revealed expected corporate health insurance renewal costs to increase 20 percent to 32 percent over the previous year. These phenomenal rises in the cost of health insurance, several times the rate of inflation, have caused employers, often in collaboration with insurers, to pursue a variety of cost-cutting strategies. Employer-provided health insurance is eroding in the United States. Rapidly rising health care costs have impacted both insurers and employers. Competition among employers has caused some to eliminate or reduce health benefits for employees, dependents, or retirees. In 1980, for example, 74 percent of all employees covered by health insurance had that insurance fully paid by their employer. In 1988 there were 7 million retirees and dependents covered by health insurance that was paid for all or in part by former employers for a total cost of $9 billion. Employers also attempt to shift the cost of health insurance to the public sector.
