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More than 60 percent of those uninsured in the state were employed but without employer-supported coverage, according to Policy Matters Ohio, a labor-focused think tank.
Four in 10 uninsured adults in Ohio worked full time.
Policy Matters Ohio included the data as part of a series of reports on Ohio health insurance.
Senior researcher Amanda Woodrum said in the report that low-wage employers were “especially inadequate in their support of employee health” and offered health benefits to less than one-third of 1.2 million employees in the state in low wage work.
Low-wage employers were defined as employers that pay half or more of employees at or below the 25th percentile for all hourly wages in U.S. In 2016, that amount was $11.50 per hour.
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“More can and should be done to ensure equal access to health care in the richest nation in the world,” Woodrum stated. “Given downward trends in employer-supported health care, the public sector can, should and does help pick up the slack.”
Woodrum reported 4.6 million Ohioans not able to get employer-sponsored insurance receive insurance through Medicare, Medicaid, or the publicly-subsidized health insurance marketplace.
She wrote that employers limit eligibility by restricting employees to part-time or temporary status and implementing waiting periods for coverage. She also cited cost-sharing policies that amount to as much as 25 percent of a low-wage worker’s pre-tax income as a barrier to health care coverage.
Are you uninsured? We’d like to hear from you. Reach out to reporter Kaitlin Schroeder at 937-225-2279 or kaitlin.schroeder@coxinc.com.
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