Despite the availability of far more choices in health coverage, most employees want employers to still provide coverage and choose what's best for their workforce.
That's what a survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found when it asked workers about their benefits preferences. The survey not only plumbed employee depths on health insurance, but also asked questions about whether they would give up certain benefits to get more cash in their paychecks. The survey, conducted last year, was a follow-up to a 2012 survey by EBRI.
When asked if they were satisfied overall with their benefits plan, 70 percent responded in the affirmative. When asked whether they would give up benefits for cash, the survey found a jump from 2012. Then, just 10 percent said they would. This time around, 19 percent said they'd rather have a fatter wallet than a richer benefits package.
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Just 12 percent said they would give up cash for benefits.
"This growing interest in trading benefits for wages may reflect an intensifying desire for real wage growth in the wake of the Great Recession," said Paul Fronstin, director of EBRI's Health Research and Education Program, and co-author of the report.
When it came to questions about their health insurance, EBRI said that most workers prefer employer sponsored coverage, and most trust their employer to select the health plan that's best for them.
"Choice of health plans is important to workers, and they would like more choices. But most workers express confidence that their employers or unions have selected the best available health plan—and they are not as confident in their ability to choose the best available plan if their employers or unions did, in fact, stop offering coverage," Fronstin said.
Among other WBS findings:
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Health insurance was again cited by most employees as the most important employee benefit to workers. "This finding has remained constant even following enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, which has raised questions about whether employers will continue to offer health coverage to their workers in the future," EBRI said.
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Most employees not only trust their employer or union to choose their health coverage, but "they are not as confident in their ability to choose the best available plan if their employers or unions did, in fact, stop offering coverage."
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Most respondents said they wouldn't be comfortable trying to choose a health plan by studying an objective plan rating system, "nor are they extremely confident that a rating system could help them choose the best health insurance."
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
