By now, the controversy surrounding the McKinsey & Co. report is well known. The report, released earlier this year, claims that the federal healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act, will leave more people without insurance than there are now. Politicians have been debating the findings of the study but there is little in the way of evidence they can offer to counter the claims therein.
However, two new reports sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the largest philanthropy organization devoted to health care issues in the U.S., refutes the findings in the McKinsey & Co. survey.
The first report comes from the State Health Access Data Center at the University of Minnesota. It shows that nearly 7 million more people received health insurance through their employer in 2009 than they had in 2000. In the same period, the rate of people with insurance throughout the country fell from 69% to 61%. The report found that only low-income employees of small companies were subject to losing their insurance coverage between these years.
The next study is from the Urban Institute, an investigative institution analyzing the myriad of social and economic issues prevailing in the U.S. The study finds that 2010’s Affordable Care Act would be more likely to spur large companies to continue to offer insurance benefits for their employees. This is due, in part, to a number of tax incentives provided by the law.
The Urban Institute notes, however, that the drawback to these tax incentives for large companies means that smaller businesses are not eligible to receive them. According to the report, if companies are going to stop offering health benefits, it will be small businesses.
