System meltdown: employer-sponsored health insurance

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Employer-sponsored health insurance covers 165.6 million Americans. It’s the default. For lots of workers, it’s a key reason to accept a job offer, or to stay in a job. But that system is slowly imploding. As premiums have grown explosively — the average employer plan now prices out at $27,000 for family coverage — businesses have passed more costs onto their workers. And, as STAT News reporter Bob Herman wrote in July: America's Small Businesses are Giving Up on Health Insurance . That story kicked off a series, Out of Pocket, Out of Reach , with a subtitle that says it all: “How America's Employer-Based Healthcare System Continues to Crumble in Slow…