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Re-activateMost Americans under 65—61 percent, to be exact—get their health coverage through someone's job. So it's no surprise our readers had questions for Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama's Secretary of Health and Human Services, about what happens to employment-based coverage under health reform.
Will my good employer-based coverage get worse?
One reader worries that the good coverage she gets through her employer would somehow become more expensive or less comprehensive because of the cost of providing health insurance to Americans who don't have it now. In fact, Sebelius told us, insured Americans are already paying a "hidden tax" of about $1,000 a year to defray the costs of care for uninsured people who can't pay their bills. Reform, she said, "will lower overall costs and get rid of those hidden costs." Oh, and also reduce the federal deficit by $100 billion over the first 10 years, and another $1 trillion the second 10 years.Will I have an alternative to my bad employer-based coverage?
Another reader had the opposite concern. He said he pays "over $400 a month for employer-covered insurance that I absolutely hate and refuses to cover anything," and wondered whether after reform he'd be able to switch to a better plan. Actually, he might, Sebelius said. One provision of the law says that "if you're paying too much of your income to get lousy coverage" through your job, you'll be able to substitute better coverage purchased through the new insurance exchanges.
Oh, heck, just watch for yourself.
—Nancy Metcalf, Senior Program Editor
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