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Articles in Jobs that do not provide health insurance and guaranteed sick leave contribute to poor health outcomes.

  • In California in 2003, only 54.4% of jobs provided health insurance coverage, down from 59% in 2001.

    Data Central, United Way of the Bay Area. Percentages taken from California Health Interview Survey 2001 and 2003 (2001 data re-weighted 2/7/05). Accessed online: HYPERLINK "http://www.uwba.org/helplink/datacentral.html" http://www.uwba.org/helplink/datacentral.html

  • Parents of special needs children who had paid leave benefits had 2.8 times greater odds of taking time off to care for their children than their counterparts who did not have paid leave benefits.

    Chung PJ, Garfield CF, Elliott MN, Carey C, Eriksson C, Schuster MA. 2007. Need for and use of family leave among parents of children with special health care needs. Pediatrics 119(5):e1047-55.

  • Going to work ill repeatedly is associated with long-term sickness absence at a later date. In a Danish study, participants who had gone to work ill more than six times in the year prior to baseline had a 74% higher risk of becoming sick-listed for more than 2 months.

    Hansen CD, Andersen JH. 2009. Sick at work-a risk factor for long-term sickness absence at a later date? Journal of epidemiology and community health 63(5): 397-402.

  • Even among higher-income adults, lack of health care insurance was associated with significantly decreased use of recommended health care services.

    Ross, JS; Bernheim, SM; Bradley, EH; Teng, HM; Gallo, WT. 2007. Use of preventive care by the working poor in the United States. Preventive Medicine 44 (3):254-259

  • Having health insurance coverage is significantly associated with access to medical checkups.

    Faulkner LA, Schauffler HH. The effect of health insurance coverage on the appropriate use of recommended clinical preventive services. Am J Prev Med. 1997;13:453–458.
    Dan Culica, MD, PhD, James Rohrer, PhD, Marcia Ward, PhD, Peter Hilsenrath, PhD, and Paul Pomrehn, MD, MS. 2002. Medical Checkups: Who Does Not Get Them? Am J Public Health. 2002 January; 92(1): 88–91.

  • Individuals without health insurance frequently forego timely health care, suffer more severe illness, and are more likely to die a premature death than their insured counterparts. Annually nationwide, 18,000 premature deaths are attributable to lack of health coverage.

    Institute of Medicine. Committee on the Consequences of Uninsurance. Insuring America’s Health: Principles and Recommendations. January 2004. Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.iom.edu/Object.File/Master/17/736/0.pdf" http://www.iom.edu/Object.File/Master/17/736/0.pdf

  • Families with at least one full-time, full-year worker are more than twice as likely to have health insurance coverage, compared to families whose wage earners work as part-time employees (less than 35 hours per week), as contingent labor (e.g., on a seasonal or temporary basis, as employees of contractors, self-employed), or in which there is no wage earner.

    Institute of Medicine. Committee on the Consequences of Uninsurance. Coverage Matters: Insurance and Health Care (2001), Chapter 3, Who Goes Without Health Insurance? Who Is Most Likely to Be Uninsured? Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.nap.edu/html/coverage_matters/ch3.html" http://www.nap.edu/html/coverage_matters/ch3.html

  • The lack of sick leave benefits is associated with workers 1) coming to work sick, 2) working at lower levels of productivity, 3) risking infecting other workers, 4) experiencing longer recovery times, 5) experiencing worse health outcomes in children, and 6) utilizing higher cost health care down the line.

    Lovell V. No Time to be Sick: Why Everyone Suffers When Workers Don’t have Paid Sick Leave. Washington DC: Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2004.

  • Annually nationwide, 18,000 premature deaths are attributable to lack of health coverage.

    Institute of Medicine, 2004. Project on the Consequences of Uninsurance: An Overview. HYPERLINK "http://www.iom.edu/Object.File/Master/17/736/Fact%20sheet%20overview.pdf" http://www.iom.edu/Object.File/Master/17/736/Fact%20sheet%20overview.pdf

  • Parents of special needs children receiving full pay during leave were more likely than were parents receiving no pay to report positive effects on their own emotional health as well as child physical and emotional health, and were less likely to report financial problems.

    Schuster MA, Chung PJ, Elliott MN, Garfield CF, Vestal KD, Klein DJ. 2009. Perceived effects of leave from work and the role of paid leave among parents of children with special health care needs. American Journal of Public Health. 99(4): 698-705.