Health Insurance May Be Easier To Get For Restaurant Workers

A new initiative could help four to six million uninsured restaurant employees get coverage. According to the Chicago Tribune, the National Restaurant Association along with UnitedHealth Group Inc teamed up to make health insurance coverage easier for restaurant workers to get. The move comes three years before the US government will require everyone to have health insurance and will help roughly ten percent of the uninsured workforce.

An array of insurance plans geared toward the restaurant industry will be unveiled by officials. Plans will be released first in Pennsylvania and Colorado, then expanded to California, Florida, Illinois, Texas and other states within the upcoming year. Eventually the plan will encompass the whole year. “Because of the narrow profit margins of the restaurant business, it has been an ongoing real challenge for our industry to find affordable [insurance] products they could offer to employees,” said Dawn Sweeney, chief executive of the influential restaurant group, which represents about 380,000 employers nationwide, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Officials from UnitedHealthcare say they’ve been working on the program for two years. “We hope that by working together, we can make inroads in covering the people who don’t have insurance,” said Austin Pitman, chief growth officer for UnitedHealthcare, according to the Nation’s Restaurant News. He says the program will also offer a 24-hour health care hotline and wellness programs. The NRA’s chairman of the board, Mike Gibbons believes that health care reform will put a huge burden on the restaurant industry, but this plan may alleviate some of that. “The cost of health care reform could be potentially devastating,” he said. “The alliance will give lower cost health care alternatives.”

The restaurant industry employs nearly 13 million people around the country, but has one of the lowest levels of health care coverage. Sweeney says that’s why identifying health care was identified as a top concern of the association. So what’s included in the plan? According to reports restaurant owners and employees will have a web portal dedicated to them to shop for UnitedHealth insurance products. Restaurant owners could use the site to find plans for their employees, and the site would also offer individual plans for workers whose workplace doesn’t offer the benefit of health insurance. A variety of employer-sponsored plans would be available including plans that offer coverage for preventative care, routine medical visits, catastrophic events and more.