Across the nation, the number of employers offering health insurance to their employees is decreasing due to the rising costs of health care.  Texas is no different and they are actually seeing a more dramatic drop when compared to the national average.  The article “Texas Falling Behind in Employer-Based Health Insurance” by PublicNewsService.org says the availability of health insurance through employers is much less in Texas than the average.  This is based on a recent study released this month.

The report goes on to show a big drop off in how many Americans are obtaining health insurance with more and more people turning to individual health insurance in Texas.  Lynn Blewett assisted in the production of the study completed for The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  Blewett is the director of the University of Minnesota’s State Health Access Data Assistance Center.  Middle to low income families have been affected particularly hard by this shift says Blewett.  In the year 2000, about 62% of Texas employers offered health insurance to their employees, and by 2010 this dropped significantly to around 52%.  The national average remains around 61% so Texas is way behind this.

Hopefully, with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, more employers will be able to offer health insurance to their employees.  There should be more affordable policy options offered through exchanges and also more options designed for small businesses.  There is still a big debate in Congress about whether or not this will be the way everything pans out, and with research studies coming out on both sides it’s hard to make a solid prediction.