A report published by Employee Benefits Research Institute indicates that while employers are not considering dropping health coverage for employees, if one large company were to do so, others would be forced to consider doing the same to stay competitive. While most employers were not preparing to drop coverage they did indicate reasons that would lead them to do so, including elimination of the employer tax deduction, movement to a universal system, and erosion or elimination of ERISA pre-emption.

The report also shows that there is some erosion in employer-sponsored health coverage, especially among small businesses, but the percentage of workers with access to benefits, and the percentage of workers covered by them, is relatively unchanged. Even though worker cost sharing is increasing, and increasing faster than inflation, 71 percent of workers are covered by employer-sponsored benefits.