Even if the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) were repealed, most businesses would maintain certain provisions of the law in their health care plans, according to a new survey.
In response to a poll of employers by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, 78 percent signaled that they would continue offering certain benefits mandated by the sweeping health law even if it were scrapped.
By far the most popular provision they would seek to retain for their own health plans would be allowing workers to have their adult children covered until age 26. Sixty-five percent of employers said they would want to keep that policy place for their employees. Thirty-nine percent cited the prohibition on cost-sharing for preventative services and 23 percent cited the provision that bars insurance plans from implementing dollar limits on "essential benefits."
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The poll also found that most employers do not favor repeal of the PPACA. Only 35 percent said they favored killing the law, while 44 percent signaled opposition and 20 said they were unsure. The ambivalence to repealing the law is likely linked to the anticipated disruption to the health care industry and the broader economy that would follow.
"Employers have seen certain ACA provisions have a positive impact on their workforce," explained Julie Stich, research director of the group. "Mandates such as the elimination of preexisting condition exclusions and coverage of children until age 26 have allowed employees and their families to receive health care services that have made a positive impact on their physical, financial, and emotional well-being."
The study supported previous research that suggests relatively few employers have stopped providing health care to workers as a result of the PPACA. The survey found that 97 percent of employers say they plan to continue offering insurance to full-time employees over the next five years.
One provision of the law that concerns employers is the so-called "Cadillac Tax" that levies a 40 percent excise tax on health plans that exceed a certain price point. Congress voted to suspend implementation of the provision, which was supposed to go into effect in 2018, for an additional two years, but many employers are preparing to avoid it by cutting benefits.
Twenty-eight percent say those changes are currently in the works, and an additional 38 percent say they plan to implement such changes before the tax goes into effect, by putting in place greater cost-sharing through high-deductible or consumer-driven plans. Only 2 percent of employers said they planned to pay the tax.
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