Will health care reform eventually erode employer-sponsored health insurance? Many observers felt that it might. But so far, 18 months into the reform era, it hasn’t.
The Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have made a joint venture of monitoring the course of employer-sponsored insurance since government subsidized insurance became available. The two entities just released their second examination of post-reform employer coverage, and found again that employers are still offering it, and employees are still eager to take them up on their offer.
In fact, it seems that a 12-year decline in the percent of workplaces offering coverage has been halted, if not reversed.
The latest study reports that about 70 percent of all employers offer health coverage to employees, a number unchanged since June 2013. The number had fallen below 70 percent in 2012.
“Despite early predictions that employers would stop providing employee coverage as a result of the Affordable Care Act, the percentage of workers with offers of insurance from their or a family member’s employer and the percentage of workers taking up their employer’s offer of insurance did not change after implementation of the health law,” the study said in summary.
Among the specific findings of the March study:
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Employer-sponsored insurance remained at 71 percent to 72 percent for all workers;
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Coverage raters were 49 percent to 50 percent for workers in small firms, and 83 percent to 84 percent for workers in large firms.
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83 percent of all employees were offered health insurance through their employers, compared with 82.3 percent in June 2013;
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Offer rates stayed roughly constant at 82 percent to 83 percent for all workers, 61 percent to 62 percent for workers in small firms, and 94 percent to 95 percent for workers in large firms;
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The percentage of workers who took up the coverage offered also remained relatively steady — 87 percent in March 2015 compared with 86 percent in June 2013;
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The take-up rate was 81 percent to 82 percent for workers in small firms, and 88 to 89 percent for workers in large firms.
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“Despite rumors to the contrary, so far it would appear that employer-sponsored insurance is holding steady,” said Kathy Hempstead, who directs coverage issues at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “There are many potentially offsetting factors affecting employer insurance including an expanding economy and the individual mandate, as well as the new marketplaces, and it may take some time before the post-Affordable Care Act trend is discernible.”
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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.
