Survey: Large employers plan to keep offering insurance, at least for now

An annual survey of large employers found that most do not expect to send full-time employees to health insurance exchanges during the next five years, but are the long-term outlook for employer-sponsored coverage is less certain (Source: “Most large employers to keep health insurance benefit: survey,” MedCity News, March 7, 2013)

The survey, conducted by benefits consulting firm Towers Watson and the National Business Group on Health a coalition of large employers, found that the percentage of employers that were confident they would still be providing coverage to employees in 10 years increased from 23 percent last year to 26 percent this year. However, that is a sharp drop from 73 percent of employers five years ago.