The Latest Research, Commentary, And News From Health Affairs
Monday, July 26, 2021
Dear John,
A new study found that US sick leave policies disproportionately exclude certain groups and differ significantly from peer countries.
US Sick Leave Eligibility Rules Widen Inequalities
In a new article released ahead of print today, Jody Heymann and colleagues break down how eligibility requirements for sick leave—as illustrated in the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which provides job protection but no pay—contribute to disparities in leave access. The authors find that FMLA eligibility restrictions exclude 50.3 percent of private-sector and self-employed workers from coverage. Specifically, “the FMLA’s minimum hours requirement disproportionately excludes women, while its tenure requirement disproportionately excludes Black, Indigenous, and multiracial workers.”
They also point out that US policies differ significantly from those of its peers: “Every other high-income country provides paid sick leave to all workers regardless of firm size, and nearly all countries with paid sick leave cover workers regardless of hours, while a majority do so regardless of tenure.”
Another article published this month in the July issue of Health Affairsfocuses on Puerto Rico, a US territory with a 99 percent Latino population. Alexandra Rivera-González and coauthors found that among the major non-Puerto Rican Latino subgroups in Puerto Rico, “citizens have a significantly higher probability of being insured compared with noncitizens.”
Today on Health Affairs Blog, Brian Miller and coauthors describe how the Veterans Health Administration's proposed Veterans Health Advantage Program can adapt successful models from TRICARE.
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