Despite ObamaCare's promise for better quality care at lower costs, nearly three-fourths of employers remain convinced health care reform will lead to higher costs for employer-sponsored benefit programs and health care services in general, and more than half believe it will reduce available benefits and lower the quality of health care.
This is according to results of an employer survey released Wednesday by Towers Watson and the National Business Group on Health.
A separate Towers Watson survey of U.S. employees found workers believe health reform will not only lead to higher costs, but decrease the quality of care and reduce the benefits available to them.
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"Although the status of legislative health care reform is currently in limbo, it's clear that employers and employees alike are concerned over the potential impact reform could have on health costs and their benefit programs," said Ron Fontanetta, Towers Watson Health and Group Benefits practice leader for Intellectual Capital Development. "While health reform could ultimately provide greater access to health care to more Americans, there is a fair amount of skepticism over whether health reform will be able to curb rising health costs."
The effect of health reform, according to employers:
| Will increase the overall cost of health care services in the U.S. | 71% |
| Will increase the cost of benefit programs | 69% |
| Will decrease employer-sponsored offering of retiree medical benefits | 46% |
| Will lead to fewer employers offering subsidized benefits | 35% |
| Will cause no change to employer-sponsored offering of retiree medical benefits | 27% |
| Will increase employer-sponsored offering of retiree medical benefits | 5% |
"These survey data confirm quantitatively what many people — employers, employees and policy pundits — have been talking about for the past four months. That is, whatever else a health care reform plan might do, it is unlikely to control health care costs, which has everyone worried," said Helen Darling, President of the National Business Group on Health.
Some pros and cons in employers' views and expectations from health care reform:
| Will increase access to health benefit coverage | 71% |
| Will have no change on the value of benefits that employers offer | 40% |
| Will have no change on health care quality | 39% |
| Will increase transparency of provider prices | 34% |
| Will increase adoption of total replacement consumer-driven health plans by large employers | 34% |
| Will increase transparency of provider quality | 30% |
| Will lower health care quality and decrease the value of benefits that employers offer | 27% |
| There will be no change in consumer-driven health plan adoption | 27% |
| Adoption of consumer-driven health plans will decrease | 9% |
What workers at midsize and large U.S. companies think of health reform:
| Would result in higher benefit costs | 67% |
| Would reduce available benefits | 54% |
| Would lower the quality of health care | 53% |
| Employees would not be comfortable purchasing their own insurance in the reformed markets as an alternative to getting coverage through their employer | 40% |
The 15th Annual National Business Group on Health -Towers Watson Employer Survey on Purchasing Value in Health Care was conducted from November 2009 through January 2010 with 507 employers of 1,000 or more employees that collectively employ 11.5 million workers. In a separate survey, over 1,000 employees at U.S. companies were polled from a national panel from mid- to late November 2009 for their views on health care reform.
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