A University of Alaska report released in late April says that employers or union insurance provide health care coverage for most Alaskans, but that the share of small businesses offering insurance has been dropping.
In private industry, the number of small employers offering health insurance to employees has been shrinking nationwide, mainly because it’s become so expensive, the report said. In Alaska the problem of growing costs is magnified, because both the costs of health care and health insurance are already far above the national average, the report said.
State officials hope to learn by this summer if the federal government approves using federal funds to help pay the big medical bills incurred by some Alaskans with Affordable Care Act health insurance plans.
The study on how Alaskans cover their medical bills Economic Research, found the share of small businesses offering insurance has dropped from 30 percent in 2010 to 27 percent by 2015, compared with from 39 percent to 29 percent nationally.
Researchers also found that 19.5 percent of residents are covered by Medicaid, 17 percent by the Indian Health Service, 13 percent by Tricare, 11 percent by Medicare, 8.5 percent by individual plans, including the Affordable Care Act, and 3.5 percent by the Veterans Administration.
Another 9.2 percent of Alaskans have no coverage.
The Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion currently provide health care coverage for many Alaskans who were previously uninsured. Given Alaska’s current recession, people are losing jobs and could become eligible for Medicaid or lose their insurance. The most recent information ISER had to compile the report is from 2015, so it’s likely the number of uninsured low-income adults is now smaller.
The report also found that not all of the uninsured have low incomes, that their age range is similar to all Alaskans, that they are more likely to be male, and they are mostly Caucasian.
Among the uninsured, based on 2015 data, 10 percent had per=person household incomes of more than $56,000. The state average per person household income that year was about $34,000.
Half of the uninsured in 2015 were 34 or younger. Nearly 60 percent of the uninsured were men or boys, and 77 percent were white.
The report is online at http://www.iser.uaa.alaska.edu/Publications/2017_04-ResearchSummary84.pdf
