Credit: blvdone/Adobe Stock
Many U.S. workers seem to be enthusiastic about the idea of using employer cash to buy their own individual or family health coverage.
Researchers from the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald Research have reported data supporting that possibility in a summary of results from a recent online survey of 1,401 U.S. full-time and part-time workers ages 21 through 64.
Much of the survey related to workers' financial wellness and general health insurance access and affordability issues, and much of the media coverage of the survey report has focused on the answers to those questions. But some questions were about what the participants thought about the individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement concept.
About 43% of the survey participants said they were "very interested" or "extremely interested" in the ICHRA concept, and 39% said they were somewhat interested.
Only 5% said they were "not at all interested."
One problem survey teams have when asking workers about the ICHRA concept is that many workers know little about ICHRAs.
The survey team tried to deal with ICHRA literacy concerns by giving participants a description of ICHRAs before asking the participants about their views.
Here is the ICHRA description that appeared in the survey: "Your employer decides to offer a type of medical plan that sets a fixed reimbursement amount for health insurance coverage. As an eligible employee, you will select and enroll in a plan that fits your needs rather than be limited to a group plan, and your employer would reimburse you up to a certain dollar amount for health insurance premiums and qualified medical expenses. The reimbursement amount is excluded from your taxable income."
The survey team also asked the participants about the ideal ICHRA plan menu size.
About 46% said they somewhat or greatly preferred the idea of being able to choose from a long list of coverage providers and plan types.
About 18% said they preferred to have a limited set of choices, and 9% said they would greatly prefer to have a limited set of choices.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.