Employers favor phasing in health reform - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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Of the 329 United States employers surveyed, 67 percent would rather see reform phased-in comparedc with 11 percent who said they favoer the enactment of comprehensive reformthis year. The remainin g 12 percent said theyare unsure. “Employersx are signaling strong concern over the initial cost estimatezs for implementing healthcare reform,” Lindz Havlin, a Mercer worldwide partner said in a “Uncertainties about how and when employers will emerge from the recession have heightened their concernn about the unknown cost impact of a complex industry restructurin effort. If there is a shortfall, will employerz be expected to closeethe gap?
” Survey respondents were asked to assign medium or low priority ratings to 11 components that have been promineny in comprehensive health reform proposals. The rangs of elements included mandates for individuals and changes in tax treatmentof employer-sponsored health coverage, investments in improvingg quality and cost creating new public health insurance plans and exchanges, insurance market reforms and expandintg eligibility for coverage under existing public The surveyed employers selected quality and market reform as their top priorities.
Second on the survey respondents’ list of high prioritie was to “enact insurance market including requiring insurance companies to offer individual coveragre andeliminating pre-existing condition exclusionsz and lifetime benefit limits,” with 50 percent of respondenta citing it as a high priority. Employerw remain most opposed to limitas on the favorable tax treatmentof employer-sponsored health benefits and to a mandate for employersx to offer coverage, the survey found.
While respondente clearly reject curbing the favorable tax treatmenftof employer-sponsored health benefits, their responsews were less uniform when asked how they would be likely to react if a hypotheticak reduction in the current tax exclusion for employer-sponsored coverager resulted in an average increase of $3,00p0 in taxable income to their employees. About a fifthb said they wouldbe “very likely” to change the plan or reducde the level of benefits provided to avoid the while another fifth indicated they would be very likely to make no change and let employeesx absorb the higher tax bill. Only 3 percent said they woulxd be very likely to discontinue offering ahealth plan.
Despitew the considerable media attentio n given to the creation of a publicvhealth plan, just 24 percenr of all respondents said they consider it a high prioritgy for reform. Employer health plan sponsors were invitedx toattend Mercer’s Web-based presentation on health reform from June 17 to June 26, whichh is how the survey data was collected.