As the country awaits the Supreme Court ruling on the Health Care Reform Act, six in ten employers across the country are hoping for full repeal of the law, and 56% disagree a complete repeal of the law would be a major setback for the country, according to results from Health Care Reform 360, a multi-wave, national study by Market Strategies International, the highly-regarded global market research and consulting firm.
¡°Three in ten (29%) employers believe the Supreme Court will repeal the law in full while one-quarter (25%) believe only portions of the law will be stricken,¡± said Susan McIntyre, senior vice president in the company's Health Care division.
She added, ¡°While the majority of employers hope the law will be repealed, seven in ten (71%) feel there are some good parts of the law that should stay in place. The message from employers is that while they may not agree with the law as it is written today, there are elements that they believe should be retained. This reflects the dialogue that has been going on among health benefits insurers, business groups and consumers.¡±
The study also found that six in ten (64%) companies across the country are waiting on the Supreme Court decision prior to making any major plans on how to respond to the law. Despite what the Supreme Court decides, an almost equal number of employers are waiting to make plans until after the 2012 fall elections.
¡°Although employers are waiting to make any major decisions in response to the law, most are continuing to prepare their organizations for all possible outcomes of the ruling,¡± said McIntyre. ¡°However, when we compare employers that currently offer coverage to those that don't, the majority of companies that don't offer coverage are far less likely to be proactively preparing for various outcomes of the ruling and have adopted a ¡®wait and see' position. This is not surprising considering they won't be impacted by the law until 2014, unlike employers that are currently offering benefits and have already had to implement various aspects of the law that have gone into effect.¡±
The Health Care Reform 360 study offers additional significant insight into employers' plans for health care coverage as well as current levels of familiarity with the law, attitudes and concerns. Full results will be available in July and will compare against results to the first wave of the study conducted in fall 2010. Results will also include a segmentation of US firms on various aspects of coverage intentions and Health Care Reform.
