In a story that appeared in the April 2009 Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, entitled "Most Employers Underestimate Full Costs of Employee Health on Productivity" the authors point out that:
- Just 60% of businesses offered health insurance in 2007, compared to 69% in 2000
- Health insurance premiums increased at a rate nearly double that of workers’ earnings in 2007 (which compares a 6.1% increase in healthcare premiums to a 3.7% increase in earnings during that period)
Understandably, many cost-conscious employers, trying to remain profitable, believe that this is a way of targeting a large expense and minimizing it as a way to help the organizations' financial viability. Unfortunately, as the report cites, research shows that there was $48 Billion of economic revenue lost due to sick days, resulting from diminshed health care.
When you look at cause and effect, it's not much of an economic benefit to employers to scrimp on this important benefit, is it?
