Dive Brief:
- Companies are seeing a growing number of full-time workers opting for corporate health coverage.
- There are several reasons why this might be the case. One reason may be that the ACA requires Americans to obtain coverage or face a penalty. However, other experts see the $95 penalty in the law's first year for not signing up for benefits as far too minimal to be motivating these employees' behavior.
- Analysts suggest that workers see employer coverage as offering better benefits and lower prices.
Dive Insight:
The bottom line here it seems to be that employer benefits, however flawed some may be, are still more desirable than the exchange-based health plans, whose giant deductibles and coinsurance make them almost useless to your average worker. I think most want to wait a year or two to see what effect exchange plans and the ACA's requirements have on employer-based healthcare. In the meantime, is anyone going to look at the number of people who remain uninsured despite needing insurance badly?