The number of businesses offering health benefits has remained relatively steady since the introduction of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, and the percentage of workers eligible for employer-based coverage has actually increased slightly since 2014.

These findings are part of a new study from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), released earlier this month. EBRI looked at the overall availability of employer-based plans on the private market and found that trends had remained stable over the past two decades—large employers nearly always offer health benefits, with that availability decreasing as the size of the employer goes down.

For example, in 2022, 99% of companies with 1,000 or more employees offered health insurance; for companies with 100 to 999 employees, the percentage was 97%. In addition, for companies with 25-99 employees, 80% offered health benefits. Smaller companies were less likely to offer coverage: of those with 10-14 employees, 54% offered health benefits in 2022; and of the smallest companies, with fewer than 10 employees, 25% offered health benefits.