Survey: More employers exploring private insurance exchanges

A new national survey found that in an effort to reduce costs, one-third of U.S. employers plan to move their workers’ health-care coverage to a private exchange in the next few years (Source: “Employers Turn to Private Health Exchanges to Cut Costs,” Bloomberg News, Feb. 19, 2014).

The survey, conducted by insurance broker Aon, found that while 95 percent of employers said they would continue to offer health care in the next three to five years, 33 percent may use a private exchange to provide the benefit up from 5 percent currently.

“Employers are telling us they are losing confidence in their traditional approaches, like vendor changes or employee cost-sharing,” which only deliver “incremental” improvement, Jim Winkler, Aon’s chief innovation officer for health benefits, said in a telephone interview. “Employers are saying, ‘I need to do something different.’”