Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in the case of King vs. Burwell, the ball is back in the court of consumers and employers.

How are employers responding? Mercer, a health plan advisor in New York City, recently asked 600 of them exactly that. Here is what their survey found:

More employers (29 percent) believe the decision will have a positive effect than a negative effect (17 percent), although a slight majority (54 percent) doesn’t believe this ruling affects them one way or the other. The larger the employer, the more likely they are to see the ruling as a positive for their organization.
Just below one-half (45 percent) said they are considering steering retirees to the public exchange or have already begun to do so. A retiree moving from an employer-sponsored plan to the exchange would almost certainly have more options on the exchange, and be able to consider cost and level of coverage in selecting a plan.
Employers are much less likely to consider the public exchange as an alternative source of coverage for currently eligible part-time employees. Just 24 percent of respondents that provide coverage to employees working fewer than 30 hours per week said they are considering this strategy or already have it in place.
Forty-five percent of all respondents that currently offer coverage to early retirees said they are considering steering retirees to the public exchange or already have begun to do so. An employer considering terminating medical coverage for early retirees would need to evaluate whether their employees might have—or claim—a legal right to continued access to an employer-sponsored plan upon retirement.
Relatively few respondents—16 percent—believe that the increase in the number of Americans with health insurance has affected their employees’ ability to access health care so far. Still, it is enough of a concern that some employers have begun to address access with solutions like telemedicine or on-site medical clinics.
The vast majority of employers said they had not been waiting for this decision before taking further action to comply with reporting requirements.

“The good news we see out of this survey is that employers are starting to see win-win opportunities in the availability of subsidized coverage through the public exchanges,” said Tracy Watts, Mercer’s leader for health reform.

“Also, it’s a good thing employers weren’t too distracted by all the buzz around this case, because they need to be collecting data now to provide the reporting information required in early 2016. And let’s not forget that about a third of employers are on track to hit the excise tax in 2018 unless they take steps to avoid it.”

Instant Insights /

Most employers taking King vs. Burwell ruling in stride

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