Nearly one in 10 midsize or large employers expects to stop offering health coverage to workers once federal insurance exchanges start in 2014, according to a survey from a large benefits consultant.Towers Watson also found in a survey completed last month that an additional 20% of companies are unsure about what they will do.
Another big benefits consultant, Mercer, found in a June survey of large and smaller employers that 8% are either "likely" or "very likely" to end health benefits once the exchanges start.
Employer-sponsored health insurance has long been the backbone of the nation's health insurance system. But the studies suggest some employers, especially retailers or those paying low wages, feel they will be better off paying fines and taxes than continuing to provide benefits that eat up a growing portion of their budget every year.Such a move comes with potential payroll-tax headaches and could subject firms to fines. It also would give their employees a steep compensation cut if companies don't raise pay in exchange for ending coverage.
"Dropping coverage is going to be very difficult for these (companies) to do," said Laszewski, a consultant who was not involved with the studies.
Either way, folks, YOU, the taxpayer, are going to get screwed.
The ORP issued the following reaction:
Columbus - Ohio Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine released the following statement this morning in response to an Associated Press report that one in ten employers expect to stop offering health care coverage to workers once Obamacare exchanges begin in 2014:
"We don't need another study to confirm for us what we already know, in order to protect jobs and health care coverage in Ohio, Obamacare must be repealed. That begins by passing State Issue 3, the Health Care Freedom Amendment, in November, and ends with retiring Barack Obama and his left-hand man, Sherrod Brown, in 2012," Chairman DeWine said.
What they promised us then...
SHERROD BROWN: "If you like the coverage you have, you can keep it." (Senator Sherrod Brown, Newsletter, 07/20/09)
BARACK OBAMA: "If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what." (President Barack Obama, Remarks To The American Medical Assoc., Chicago, IL, 6/15/2009)
What we know now...
ASSOCIATED PRESS: "Survey: Almost 10% of employers may end health insurance." "Nearly one in 10 midsize or large employers expects to stop offering health coverage to workers once federal insurance exchanges start in 2014, according to a survey from a large benefits consultant." (Tom Murphy, "Survey: Almost 10% of employers may end health insurance," Associated Press, 8/24/2011)
MCKINSEY QUARTERLY: "Overall, 30 percent of employers will definitely or probably stop offering ESI in the years after 2014....Among employers with a high awareness of reform, this proportion increases to more than 50 percent. Health care reform fundamentally alters the social contract inherent in employer-sponsored medical benefits and how employees value health insurance as a form of compensation." ("How US Health Care Reform Will Affect Employee Benefits," McKinsey Report, 6/7/11)
Obamacare was about securing political legacy for Obama and Sherrod Brown. "[T]his law was never about sound policy. It was about politics and presidential bragging rights. A Democratic congressional majority used a moment of dominance to impose a hugely expensive and widely opposed new social program on the nation. The president saw it as the keystone of his legacy." (Editorial, "Extreme Demand," Columbus Dispatch 6/29/11)
Many times the chairman and I have had our disagreements, but on this one; he is totally correct! This policy was and is a disaster for the economy and for taxpayers and customers of healthcare. It will destroy the best system in the world, when all what was needed was just reform.
