Your Turn
Guest Column
JOAN FUSCO
When my father started his career in the 1950s, it was generally assumed he would have health benefits funded by his employer for the remainder of his life. But as retirement approached, those benefits all but disappeared, with health care one of his largest monthly expenses.

This situation is not unique to my father. As business owners have become saddled with doubledigit increases each year for the cost of health insurance, workers are seeing diminished policies, higher co-pays, and higher costshares with employers. Today, many small businesses simply can't afford to provide the same level of health benefits they used to - if they can afford to provide them at all.

The entitlement once given my father has gone the way of the 50- cent cup of coffee.

As a health insurance educator, I've seen how large corporations are now hiring people for the maximum number of part-time hours - just to avoid the expense of offering health insurance. And there is an alarming trend nowsurfacing that I believe has truly crossed the line. It is an issue of paramount concern to theNewJerseyAssociation ofHealth Underwriters, of which I am a member.

We are seeing employers opt to give their employees an increase in their annual wages in lieu of health insurance. This is not a health savings account, a taxadvantaged

medical savings account available to United States taxpayers in high deductible health insurance plans. Rather, it is a simple payout of additional wages - not affiliated with any insurance plan.

Such an arrangement may seem to work well for the employer, who no longer feels the obligation to offer employee health insurance. And, for the employee, the additional bump in salary appears to be a nice perk- at first.

Employees without health coverage and their family members, unable to get preventive care or proper treatment for an illness, may become sicker, resulting in the loss of an employee for an extended period of time.

Without the buying power of the company behind them, employees will wind up paying more for individual health coverage than their employers would have paid to put them on group coverage. Older employees or those with existing conditions will be hit especially hard.

For an honest and accurate discussion about the future of health insurance, our elected officials and political candidates need to rely on health insurance brokers. We cringe at the thought of our next president stepping into office with the misperception that his or her health insurance solution "won," and more importantly, that this country can actually afford to implement it.

To that end, organizations such as the New Jersey Association of Health Underwriters need to have a seat at the table to ensure our policymakers have the proper perspective and to ensure that no American falls through the cracks.

Joan Fusco is a North Brunswick resident and legislative chair for the Central Division of the New Jersey Association of Health Underwriters