Are employers dropping coverage to cope with Obamacare?

Are employers dropping coverage to cope with Obamacare?

The short answer is no. While smaller employers may be decreasing some workers hours to avoid the coverage mandate, larger employers generally don’t have that option and the vast majority plan on keeping coverage in tact.

However, employers are increasing employee premium sharing and increasing deductibles and co-payments generally via high deductible health plan options. In addition, employers are starting to think about how they may have to cope with the new tax on generous plans in 2018.

Before Obamacare employers designed their benefits to be competitive with other employers. Now employers have specific guidelines on how generous benefits have to be and the maximum they can charge workers and still comply with the law.

In other words, they have a lowest common denominator to target. Some employers, and I predict a growing number, in the future are going to ask the question … why should we provide more coverage or charge employees less than we are required to?

The fact is Obamacare has increased the cost of employer-provided benefits. The fact is nobody knows for sure yet by how much. The fact is more mandates in the future will increase the increase … got it? What would you do if you were running the benefits program at your company?

“If you like the coverage you have you can keep it.” Who says?