The article that I found relating to what we are learning is, Labor Market Consequences Of State Health Insurance Regulation by R. Kaestner (2002). Kaestner begins her article by explaining that in the past decade, most states in the U.S. have passed legislation that regulates issuance, content, and pricing of private group health insurance plans. She continues to explain that the purpose of this legislation is to raise the number of insured persons and ensure that people who are sick receive needed care. One major reason for implementing new legislation was the fact that there were so many uninsured people that were employed (Kaestner, 2002). According to the U.S. Census Bureau 2000, twenty-three million people between the ages of eighteen and sixty-four were employed but uninsured in the U.S. in 1987. Furthermore, that number increased throughout the late eighties (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). Kaestner believes that the reason for so many uninsured employed people is that insurance industries refused to sell insurance to companies that are considered high-risk companies. Because of that, one out of every two employees were uninsured. Kaestner explains that to combat this, states started limiting insurance companies’ unfair practices through legislation called reform. Furthermore, Kaestner explains that another major reason that led to a change in laws and legislation was state regulated mandated health insurance benefits. She explains that in order to ensure that people still receive appropriate care, states have specified the types of treatments and the kinds of providers an insurance plan must cover. The popularity of mandated benefits grew dramatically over time (Kaestner, 2002).
Even though the popularity of mandated insurance benefits dramatically increased, Kaestner explains that there has also been a significant amount of criticism around the fact that state regulated health plans have hidden costs. Some people argue that the state regulated insurance will increase the cost of health insurance and cause a decrease in coverage Kaestner explains that this there is possibility of an increase in cost due to more benefits being provided and to more people who need assistance (Kaestner, 2002). This article was written after a study was completed on the effects of state mandated health insurance benefits and small group-group health insurance reform on labor market outcomes and health insurance coverage. The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of state mandated health insurance benefits and small group-group health insurance reform on labor market outcomes and health insurance coverage. Furthermore, the study examined how state health insurance regulations affects employment and employment wages to see if there was a change in employment or employment wages. In other words, the study wanted to see if employee wages were decreased to compensate for benefits or if employment itself was decreased. Since there is a potential risk of decreased wages and significant effects on employment, collecting data on this subject was needed according to Kaestner. The data collected concluded that state mandated health insurance benefits and small group health insurance reform had no effect on labor market outcomes. These labor market outcomes included: quantity of work wages, and size of a company. Furthermore, the number of weeks an employee worked or their wages did not affect the number of benefits provided to employees. However, the number of hours an employee worked did affect number of benefits an employee received. Overall, Kaestner’s data collected did not show positive findings that insurance regulations affected labor market outcomes (Kaestner, 2002). This article by Kaestner (2002) relates to what we are learning in class this week in a few ways. To begin with, this week in our lecture we talked about government mandated benefits. We learned that government mandated programs were implemented to help protect the income of people during unemployment, retirement, and disability. Furthermore, we learned that these benefits and protected by federal and state laws and regulations. Theses benefits include: social security/Medicare, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, and COBRA and FMLA eligibility (Martocchio, 2014). The article by Kaestner explain why government mandated benefits were enacted and the effects they had on the labor market as well as how people perceived these benefits. People were initially concerned about state mandated health care benefits affecting wages and employment opportunities. However, employee wages and employment opportunities were not affected much (Kaestner, 2002). Some examples of these mandated benefits include: The Federal Insurance Contributions Act, The Federal Unemployment Tax Act, The Federal Employees’ Compensation Act, FMLA, COBRA, and so forth. The Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes employers and employees in order to finance Social Security Old-Age, Survive, and Disability Insurance Program. The Federal Unemployment Tax Act requires employers to contribute to fund state unemployment insurance programs. The Federal Employees’ Compensation Act was enacted to create a federal civilian employee compensation program. COBRA is a program that provides employees and their families the opportunity to continue to their health insurance benefits through their employer for a certain period of time. FMLA requires companies with fifty or more employees to provide employees with twelve weeks of unpaid leave each year for a qualifying life event. In other words, FMLA provides employees with job protection during a family or medical emergency (Martocchio, 2014). These are just a few examples of government mandated health benefits that were enacted to help people receive benefits when they are sick and/or in need. In the article written by Kaestner, it would have helped if she elaborated more on which benefits affected employee wages versus benefits that did not affect employee wages. To add to that, I believe Kaestner should have elaborated more on which particular state mandated benefits were criticized by people and why.
Furthermore this week, we also learned Patient Protection and the Affordable Care Act. Patent Protection and The Affordable Care Act was one of the largest reform bills enacted in March of 2010. The Affordable Care Act and the Patent Protection Act were enacted to drastically reduce the number of uninsured U.S. residents by 2016 (Martocchio, 2014). Just like state mandated health insurance benefits were enacted to provide uninsured people with needed heath benefits, so were the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
After reading the article, there are a few recommendations that I would provide to the business community. The first recommendation that I would give to the business community would be for organizations to provide employees with detailed information about their benefits, what their contribution is to their benefits, and what the company’s contribution to employees’ benefits is. Benefits can be very confusing to people, especially if they are new to having benefits. Providing employees with more detailed information about benefits available to them and how their company contributes will build value in that company and help people choose what benefits are best for them and their family. Furthermore, employee benefits are continuously changing as phases of the Patient Protection and the Affordable Care Act are implemented. My recommendation is that businesses take the time to talk to their employees about how the Patient Protection and the Affordable Care Act will affect their benefits and health insurance plans. Furthermore, businesses can provided their employees with outside resources to help understand changes to benefits. I believe communicating with people about benefits available is important, because it ensures that people will receive the help and assistance they need if they become ill. The more people know about what changes are implemented and how they will affect them for the better, the less criticism and resistance there is.

References
Kaestner, R. (2002). Labor Market Consequences of State Mandated Health Insurance Regulations. Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 56136.
Martocchio, Joseph J. (2014). Employee Benefits: A Primer for Human Resource Professionals (Fifth Edition). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.