Employer-sponsored health plans alive and well under ACA, despite fears

Despite predictions that the enactment of the Affordable Care Act would lead many employers to drop their employees' coverage, most companies — especially large employers — have remained committed to providing health insurance, according to The New York Times.

Government officials have even revised their predictions and lowered the number of people they think will lose coverage from their employers under the ACA. To the contrary of initial worries, officials predict employers will provide coverage for the majority of working Americans in the next decade.

The percentage of adults under 65 with employer-sponsored health insurance has stayed relatively the same for the last five years after progressively declining since 1999, according to analysis of federal data by the Kaiser Family Foundation, The New York Times reported.

An analysis from the Congressional Budget Office in March found roughly 155 million Americans have employer-sponsored health insurance in 2016, according to The New York Times. By 2019, that number is expected to fall to 152 million, but will remain stable through 2026. According to the report, just over half of people under 65 will be insured by employer-sponsored plans.

There are several reasons employers have continued in their commitment to providing employees with health insurance. For one, health benefits are important for recruitment and retention, and desirable employees still expect employer-sponsored insurance. Additionally, companies receive a federal tax break from providing employees with insurance. If they dropped the health plans, many employees would likely expect the dollar amount on their paychecks to rise to cover the cost of outside insurance.

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