point out the importance of a compensation plan that includes health care for employees. A. The EBRI states in its data that the uninsured employees are part-time, low-income, blue collar in certain industries (such as agriculture), young (under 31), single, less educated, Health Care 5minority, non-citizen and employed by small firms. The average uninsured worker is less likely to earn the same wages as an insured worker. B. Availability of health care plans has an impact on prospective employees. Further information provided by the EBRI shows that 78% of the full and part-time prospective employees take this factor into serious consideration when considering job offers (EBRI World at Work Report, 1999). C. Health care plan costs to employers as of 1992 were 221.4 billion dollars a year as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is compared to costs of 37.2 billion dollars to employees. These figures show that employers are expending 6 times as much as the employees are for the plans. 1. Employers are constantly looking for ways to reduce costs and a factor in reducing costs is to maintain or reduce the likelihood of increase in health care plans. A major step in this cost reduction method is health care prevention. Employees are in a position to have an impact on the cost of health care. Prevention in relation to plan costs is important in the fact that healthier employees cost less to purchase health care plans.2.To assist employees in starting and maintaining prevention methods the employers provide health fairs, surveys, and educational materials. Along with these efforts many companies provide quarterly newsletters, activity programs, fitness center memberships, fitness centers on-site, and incentives/rewards. Consulting groups such as Presbyterian Health Care and Health Grades provide professional assistance in reducing employer health care cos...
