As the nation awaits the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on the constitutionality of President Obama’s healthcare reform law, employers know that there is more at stake in this controversy for them than simply whether the law is upheld or not.
That’s because under the current system, employers are the primary provider of health care insurance. Whether that remains the case may change depending on what the court decides.
What is indisputable is that the proportion of workers covered under employer plans is shrinking. In a survey released in April, the nonpartisan Employee Benefits Research Institute found that between 1997 and 2010, the percentage of workers offered health insurance by their employers decreased from 70.1 to 67.5 percent, and the percentage of workers covered by those plans decreased from 60.3 percent to 56.5 percent.
Some workers declined coverage because it is too expense. And workers whose employers do not offer health benefits are more likely to go without any insurance.
The court concluded that for now, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act–the law on which the high court will decide–is the backup to employer-provided healthcare coverage.
While much of the controversy over the law has focused on the mandate for individuals to purchase insurance, it also requires employers with 50 or more full-time workers either to provide coverage or pay a penalty. Will this prompt some employers to drop their coverage and pay the fine, or do an endrun around the law by increasing the proprortion of part-time employees?
Stay tuned.
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