With President Obama’s re-election cementing health care reform, employers are now (again) considering what to do about their health care offerings. And by the looks of it, dropping health coverage for employees isn’t part of the plan.
According to a post-election survey by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, most employers (84 percent) will continue to provide health care coverage for full-time employees after the exchanges open in 2014.
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That’s up from 77 percent of employers who said the same about keeping benefits following the Supreme Court’s ruling in June.
The main reason employers plan to provide coverage for employees is to maintain/increase employee satisfaction and loyalty (40 percent). That’s followed by retaining current employees (24 percent) and part of a collective bargaining agreement (21 percent).
Obama’s re-election ended employers’ wait-and-see approach in terms of health care planning. Many were waiting first for the Supreme Court ruling on health reform’s constitutionality, then for the presidential and congressional elections.