The 2013 EBRI/Greenwald & Associates Health and Voluntary Workplace Benefits Survey reveals that most workers believe their employers or unions will continue to provide health care insurance — although there have been employer surveys indicating that, at some point in the future, some may not.
Not that workers fail to appreciate future uncertainties: While 46 percent of worker respondents to the WBS survey indicate they are extremely or very confident about their ability to get the treatments they need today, only 28 percent are confident about their ability to get needed treatments during the next 10 years.
Similarly, when it comes to retirement, the Retirement Confidence Survey has, for nearly a quarter century now, shown a remarkable resilience in worker confidence regarding their financial future in retirement, belying the savings levels indicated in that same survey. Over the course of that survey, we've seen confidence wax stronger and then wane and while we've seen distressingly low levels of preparation, more recently we've also seen a growing awareness of the need for those preparations.
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The RCS has also documented a consistent trendin workers in believing they will be able to work, and to work for pay, longer than the experience of retiree respondents suggests will be a viable option.
Next month we'll field the 24th annual version of that Retirement Confidence Survey, where we will, among other things, seek to gain a sense of American workers' preparation for (and confidence about) retirement, as well as some idea as to how those already retired view the adequacy of their own preparations.
Is a lack of worker confidence about retirement finances a troubling indicator? Or does it suggest that they have a greater appreciation for the need to prepare?
Later in the year the WBS will, as it has since 1998, probe sentiments about health care and voluntary benefits: Will workers sense a continued commitment by their employers and unions to provide health care coverage? If not, how might that affect their commitment to their work and their workplace? How might concerns about health coverage affect and influence retirement preparations?
Employers, providers, and policy makers alike, know that being able to anticipate those potential gaps between belief and a future reality can be critical.
In addition to providing financial support to two of the industry's most highly regarded employee benefit surveys, underwriters of the RCS and WBS have access to special early briefings on the findings, in addition to a number of other benefits. If you'd like to know more, email Nevin Adams at [email protected]
You can find additional information about the RCS online here http://www.ebri.org/surveys/rcs/ and information about the WBS (previously called the Health Confidence Survey) online here. http://www.ebri.org/surveys/hcs/
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