A survey of health care benefits managers found that most expect Obamacare to raise the cost of health care, The Hill reports.
A poll by PlanSource, a health care software provider, found that of 266 health care benefits decision-makers, including chief financial officers, human resources officers and benefits managers, 60 percent believe the health care law will make it more expensive for their companies to provide health insurance to employees.
The results indicate that more employers may end their employer-provided health insurance benefits in favor of sending workers to private exchanges. While respondents displayed “strong interest” in this move, the survey found that just 2 percent of participants had done so already.
Private health care exchanges, such as online exchange eHealth, have experienced considerably more success than Obamacare exchanges since the health care law went into action.
During Obamacare’s open enrollment period, eHealth (which made a deal with the federal government to offer federal subsidies to its customers) signed up a much larger proportion of young adults than the federal exchanges, with 42 percent of its customers falling between the ages of 18 and 34.
The poll’s findings are in line with a recent Wells Fargo survey of over 70 insurers that found that as the cost of health care claims to employers continues to rise, so has interest in private exchanges.
While employers are incurring higher health care costs, employees are also facing higher deductibles, co-pays and monthly premiums, the survey found.
Due to the climbing costs, 47 percent of insurance companies in Wells Fargo’s survey said that they expect to launch their own propriety private exchange by 2015 — indicating that Obamacare exchanges will have even more competition in future years.
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