Employee Benefits history

CHIP (1997) provides free or low-cost health coverage for more than 7 million children up to age 19.

Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act of 1998 protects patients who elect breast reconstruction after a mastectomy by mandating coverage for surgery and establishing a federal minimum requirement for post-operative hospital stays.

In April 2003 the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration was renamed the Employee Benefits Security Administration to more accurately reflect its mission.

In 2004 alone, the average cost of health premiums rose 7.5 percent, and companies continued to raise copayments and deductibles to follow the market.

Nickels, William G., McHugh, James M., and McHugh, Susan M. (2005). Understanding Business (7th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

One of the most extensive fringe benefits package in the history of professional sports was created in December 2006, when the Boston Red Sox (a professional baseball team) signed a young pitcher from Japan named Daisuke Matsuzaka.

GINA (May 2008) prohibits group health plans and health insurers from denying coverage to a healthy individual or charging that person higher premiums based solely on a genetic predisposition to developing a disease in the future

2009) provides states with significant new funding, programmatic options and incentives for covering children through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (March 23, 2010) creates public healthcare marketplaces and requires that insurance companies cover all participants at the same rate regardless of pre-existing conditions or gender.

As the ACA phases in to full implementation in 2014, EBSA and the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service will continue to work to issue guidance on the law's many provisions.

Now, employer-based health benefits is the most common form of health coverage in America, with approximately 167 million people under 65 in 2017 receiving employment based healthcare.