Are employers losing their fear of the much-ballyhooed Cadillac tax? A study from Mercer offers a bit of evidence that this just may be the case.

The Cadillac Tax, for those who've been cave-residing, is an excise tax on "rich" employer sponsored health plans due to kick in in 2018.  Many dire projections have been issued about how many employer plans will trigger this tax,  and there's been a flurry of activity among employers as they consider plan designs that would evade most or all of the tax.

But as discussions continue in Congress about modifying or killing the tax due to its near universal unpopularity, employers may be making alternative plan designs that assume such a revision. Or, as the Mercer study suggests, they may envision actions that, while they may trigger the tax, will have financial benefits that offset the penalty.