Employer health insurance hasn’t decreased from Obamacare

workers employer health insurance

A new survey showed the ACA has not reduced the number of employers offering these benefits.

There had been strong fears that employer health insurance would plummet at the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. That said, a recent survey has shown that Obamacare doesn’t appear to have produced this result.

The percentage of companies still offering benefits including health insurance to workers has stayed steady.

The proportion of companies offering employer health insurance benefits to both workers and their families has stayed the same. The figure has remained essentially steady since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. This, according to the Health Reform Monitoring Survey. That survey received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and from the Urban Institute.

The survey examined employer health insurance benefits figures from June 2013 through March 2016.

workers employer health insuranceThe research examined the span of time several months before the ACA was implemented through to the first quarter of this year. What it discovered was that the rates people with employer-sponsored health insurance coverage “remained stable among workers most susceptible to declines.” The report on the study also stated that it looked specifically at those most likely to lose coverage if any “were to erode under the ACA.”

That at-risk category included workers living in areas with strong opinions in opposition to governments-sponsored health care, ethnic and racial minorities, workers with lower education levels and employees of smaller businesses.

The survey also determined that some workers saw an increase in offers for employer health insurance coverage. Employees with the lowest education levels actually experienced an increase in offers for health care benefits. The same occurred among Hispanic workers.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation health insurance coverage work director, Kathy Hempstead, said “Concerns about employer-sponsored health insurance evaporating after the implementation of health reform have not materialized.” She added that there is no way to know whether this trend will continue or whether it will change. “Time will tell,” she said. However, as of the start of the year, the survey indicates there is “little to no effect” on health care coverage offered to workers through their employers.

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