Small Business Benefits Study (SBBS), 1990: [Denver, Flint, Tampa, and Tucson]

This survey was conducted as part of an evaluation of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Health Care for the Uninsured Program (HCUP), a program whose primary focus was the development and marketing of affordable health insurance products for small businesses. The survey investigated the number and types of small businesses that offered and did not offer insurance, the number and types of employees of small businesses who received and did not receive insurance, and whether the employers and employees participating in HCUP were different from those with other types of insurance or from those with no insurance. In addition, the survey was designed to test several hypotheses: whether employers facing an inelastic demand for their product or a tight labor market would be more likely to offer health insurance to their employees, and whether higher wages substitute for health insurance for certain groups of highly skilled or unionized workers. Firm-level data collected by the survey include number of permanent and temporary employees, employee turnover, fringe benefits offered to full- and part-time employees (e.g., paid vacation, paid sick leave, long-term disability insurance, life insurance, retirement plan, group health insurance), type of business, number of years owner had owned the company, age and legal form of the company, and gross revenue. Extensive information on health insurance was obtained from firms offering this benefit: total monthly premium paid for health insurance, percent of premium paid by the company, reasons that influenced the decision to provide health insurance, whether a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) insurance plan was offered, whether a deductible or co-payment was required for hospital inpatient services, and whether hospital room and board, physician office visits, maternity care, prescription drugs, inpatient mental health treatment, or substance abuse treatment were covered. These firms were also queried about recent changes in the number of health plan enrollees, deductibles, co-insurance rates, benefits offered, employer premium share, recent changes in health insurance carriers and reasons for changing, and recent increases in premiums and their effects on the firm's prices, profits, wages, and number of employees. Companies not offering health insurance were asked why they did not offer this benefit and were queried about factors that might influence them to offer a health plan. Individual-level data on employees include sex, age, marital status, length of employment, number of hours worked during the last week, salary or wage, health plan participation, amount of health premium paid by the employee, and whether the employee had health coverage from another source.