Part-time Workers Electing Health Care Coverage Drops to Nearly Half

 The 2012 Study of Large Employer Health Benefits by ADP has found that 88 percent of full-time employees are eligible for benefits and 77 percent actually enroll for coverage. This equates to 67 percent of the full-time workforce having healthcare coverage. Part-time employees, who make up nearly one-quarter of the workforce, elect healthcare coverage only 53 percent of the time. Based on these statistics, part-time employees represent less than 5 percent of employees enrolled in employer-sponsored health care plans.

Regarding employers, the study found that each employer contributes and average of $7,236 in premiums per year per participating employee. On the whole, employers with at least 5,000 employees pay about 14 percent less for insurance than smaller companies. When certain provisions of the Affordable Care Act go into effect in 2014, any employee working over 30 hours per week or 130 hours per month will be considered eligible for employer-sponsored health plans, potentially leading to increased participation by part-time employees from that time forward.

“Unlike survey-based studies, the data set in our study is derived from the actual, aggregated and anonymous benefits data and enrollment administration activity of large ADP clients representing multiple industries across all 50 U.S. states,” Tim Clifford, president of ADP Benefits Administration Services, said. “By providing key statistics on both full- and part-time workforce composition along with current health coverage eligibility and participation rates, we are learning more about the challenges facing large organizations in the new era of health care reform.”