Survey: Employers consider ending health coverage

[marmar]

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Nearly one of every 10 midsized or big employers expects to stop offering health coverage to workers once federal insurance exchanges start in 2014, according to a new survey from a large benefits consultant.

Towers Watson also found in a survey completed last month that an additional 20 percent of the companies are unsure about what they will do.

Another big benefits consultant, Mercer, found in a June survey of large and smaller employers that 8 percent are either "likely" or "very likely" to end health benefits once the exchanges start.

Employer-sponsored health insurance has long been the backbone of the nation's health insurance system. But the studies suggest that some employers, especially retailers or those offering low wages, feel they will be better off paying fines and taxes than continuing to provide benefits that eat up a growing portion of their budget every year. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Survey-Employers-consider-apf-4875845.html?x=0

[fascisthunter]

1. why should Americans have to work harder, longer hours for less?

oh, right... because of greed and the promotion of corporate fascism.

[robinlynne]

8. and because Obama removed the single payer group from the negotiating table.

[dionysus]

14. false. single payer didn't have the votes to get out of committee.

[Missy Vixen]

21. So, the fact he removed single payer from any negotiations

prior to the "committee" means nothing, hm?

:eyes:

[dionysus]

23. even bernie said they had maybe 8 or 10 senators who would vote for it. it's just the way it was.

[Missy Vixen]

27. Bullshit.

President Obama took the option off the table before there was even a discussion.

[dionysus]

35. bullshit? here's the quote;

Like so much else about the healthcare debate, it comes down to math. "I would say that in the Senate, there are at most 10 votes for a single-payer plan," Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a self-described democratic socialist, who isn't shy about his own preference for that kind of solution, told Salon this week. "In the House, I have no idea but it's a small minority ... It's absurd to say, 'Mr. President, go forward and make your bill single-payer,' when you've got 10 percent of the Congress supporting you."

[robinlynne]

22. because they were not allowed in the committee!!!!! they were excluded, carefully

in spite of considerable protest, mainly from doctors and nurses.

[dionysus]

36. bernies quote;

Like so much else about the healthcare debate, it comes down to math. "I would say that in the Senate, there are at most 10 votes for a single-payer plan," Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a self-described democratic socialist, who isn't shy about his own preference for that kind of solution, told Salon this week. "In the House, I have no idea but it's a small minority ... It's absurd to say, 'Mr. President, go forward and make your bill single-payer,' when you've got 10 percent of the Congress supporting you."

[fascisthunter]

17. yup... he screwed us by doing that

[RegieRocker]

2. What? That can't be! That goes against everything the MSM has stated.

[Occulus]

28. Next thing you know, they'll fine you for not having health insurance.

I'm glad I live in a country that doesn't fine its citizens for not buying something.

[MineralMan]

3. It may be that's what it takes to get people to demand single payer

health care. Since most people aren't really aware what the cost of their health insurance really is, it may take a very serious wakeup call to open some eyes.

Self-employed people have known for years that health insurance is simply unaffordable.

[dkf]

5. We need a complete overhaul. But that is only 8%...probably too small.

[City Lights]

6. I couldn't agree more. eom

[RobinA]

7. The Eventual

de-tangling of health insurance from employment would not be a bad thing.

[dkf]

4. The law of unintended consequences.

[indepat]

10. Yeah, no one could have seen it coming

:patriot:

[Pooka Fey]

9. Single payer is the only reasonable answer.

Health coverage should NOT be linked to your employment status. Employers, especially small businesses, should not be burdened with the out-of-control yearly cost increases which private insurers can extort from them. Single payer is a win for working Americans and a win for small and medium sized businesses who employ Americans and pay taxes in their local communities.

However the Health Insurance racket has purchased Washington and they don't want to lose out on milking the current broken system, which is why the Public Option was "off the table" even when we had a Democratic President and a Democratic House & Senate majority which could have enacted it.

[Pirate Smile]

11. This survey was debunked already. Let me find it.

Top Expert: Disputed McKinsey Health Care Study Akin To Push Poll

One of the nation's foremost experts on survey writing compared McKinsey & Company's controversial health care study to a push poll, calling into further question whether its results can be trusted as even a snapshot of employer sentiment.

"There is no doubt that the answers one would get after priming respondents the way they did would be expected to include more expressed interest in the possibility of not insuring employees than a question asked in a nonprimed context," said Floyd Fowler, a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Survey Research at University of Massachusetts, Boston, and author of the book Survey Research Methods.

McKinsey's study concluded that employers are fairly likely to rescind insurance benefits after the health care law takes full effect in 2014. The firm claims to stand by the result, though it now admits the results of the survey aren't predictive. However, the results were based on some curious questions, pasted in full below, designed to lead survey-takers to conclusions at odds with the majority of expert analysis.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/top-expert-disputed-mckinsey-health-care-study-akin-to-push-poll.php

McKinsey releases methodology; firm concedes study not predictive


By Greg Sargent


Under heavy pressure from Democrats and some reporters, McKinsey and Company has finally released the methodology of its study finding that many businesses are likely to drop insurance for employees (typo fixed) as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

There will be a lot to dig through here, but what’s immediately of interest is that in its statement, McKinsey repeatedly concedes that the study should not be seen as a predictor of future behavior. While McKinsey says it stands by the study’s methodology, the statement repeatedly stresses its lack of predictive value.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/mckinsey-releases-methodology-firm-concedes-study-not-predictive/2011/03/03/AGzDV9cH_blog.html


Incoming: Dems dropping bombs on McKinsey

By Greg Sargent


Wow. Dems are very quickly ratcheting up the pressure on McKinsey and Company — meaning it’s likely that we’ll see an increase in media scrutiny of the company’s continuing refusal to cough up the methodology of its now-controversial study on the Affordable Care Act.

In a very big development, Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus has written a detailed letter spelling out 13 very specific questions about how the study’s methodology was conducted. Says Baucus:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/incoming-dems-dropping-bombs-on-mckinsey/2011/03/03/AGM7UjXH_blog.html

http://thirdandstate.org/2011/july/families-usa-debunks-misleading-health-care-study

Who (and why) wrote an article on old and debunked material?

[Tuesday Afternoon]

18. interesting. thanks for the post and the links. n/t

[riderinthestorm]

30. I'm a small business owner. In 2014 why should I continue employer funded health ins?

I mean it. In 2014, the govt will subsidize every single last one of my employees regardless of their ability to pay so why should I continue to pay that premium?

I really doubt the debunkers. If you are a business owner, dropping health care insurance costs will be a major, major boost to the bottom line. Everyone will do it - it's just common sense.

Furthermore, I will eliminate the paperwork and hassle.... You have no idea the drain THAT takes up.

I don't care how they worded this study. Companies are going to drop their employee health ins as soon as they can.

[ohheckyeah]

32. Why should you continue?

Because it's the right thing to do?

[riderinthestorm]

37. Or we can' afford it! I have less than 10 employees and it sucks up 50% of our costs

The rates are rising without any controls at all. We rely upon TWO people to mainly carry our business: my husband, the trainer, and me the manager. Everybody else helps in our small farming operation but we cannot "grow" any larger since it's just the two of us and we can only do so much. Health ins costs are already sucking up every last dollar including my kids' college fund, repairs on buildings and equipment, as well as putting off purchasing things we desperately need like fuel, new vehicles (we drive tractors that are over 60 years old), and roofs.

We cannot raise rates in this economy or we will alienate long term clients who we rely upon to keep us afloat even at the minimal rate we are going.

Doing the "right thing" sounds great but in this economy it's impossible much as I'd like to do so.

Any suggestions? I'd love to send my 14 year old to college without burdening her with the (already monstrous amount of) debt she's sure to accumulate at this time....

I'm not the only small biz out there in the same squeeze. WHEN push comes to shove, most of us will drop our employer based health ins in 2014. I could use the extra $40.000!!! per year to make some desperately needed repairs, buy some new equipment, hire someone to help us on daily chores, etc. etc.

Major corps are MUCH savvier and greedier. They haven't wasted one single teardrop sobbing over cutting beloved employees or selling assets (our horses) that are members of our family to make ends meet. They will seize the 2014 deadline and go on their merry way. I at least will be sad but honestly, to hang on to solvency, it will be necessary.

[SoCalDem]

12. DUH!

But this is what will eventually drive us into real health care reform..SINGLE PAYER/Medicare for all.

Until the $50K & up workers "lose" employer health care there will never be enough pressure to force the issue.

People do not protest loudly so that someone somewhere can get something that they take for granted, as a given.

People protest to keep what they have.

[Stinky The Clown]

13. Earth to Obama: National Health Care will make our whole country better, businesses more competitive

This is no surprise.

[Pirate Smile]

16. Earth to Obama? That's an argument Obama used. Earth to the Republicans.

[Stinky The Clown]

20. Obama argued for National Health Care????????? Really? When?

[dionysus]

24. Earth to Stinky: don't forget it has to pass the house and senate.

which single payer didn't have a chance to do at the time.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

26. It won't pass the House or the Senate.

[Safetykitten]

15. If only someone could of foreseen this. If anyone could of said this would happen, Oh why did nobody

say anything?

Oh....yes, WE DID.

[BadgerKid]

19. The next step supporting corporate profit and management salaries. n/t

[amborin]

25. this was all predicted:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7935517

[McCamy Taylor]

29. Some, Dems should be able to count on big contributions from the nation's employers.

[jtrockville]

31. Well that sure dispels the "if you like what you have you can keep it" myth.

[ohheckyeah]

33. Truly. n/t

[Monk06]

34. The best thing that could happen to American workers. End the health insurance company store.

Next step single payer. Otherwise known as national health insurance.