For even the most casual observer, it's obvious that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is one of the more controversial laws ever passed by Congress. But even savvy observers may learn something new about the attitudes and concerns employers expressed about the law in Health Care Reform 360 a new national study by Market Strategies International, the highly-regarded global market research and consulting firm.
"Sixty-two percent of employers included in our study hope Health Care Reform is repealed, with 29 percent strongly in favor of repeal," said Susan McIntyre, senior vice president in the company's Healthcare Division. "And 72 percent disagree that it will reduce their company's health care cost burden. This is independent of firm size and whether or not employee health benefits are currently offered."
Findings also show:
"However, seven in ten believe some parts of health care reform should stay in place and 58 percent believe reform was long overdue," said McIntyre. "This suggests that while most employers do not support the law as it is currently written, there is support for some aspects of the law."
The Health Care Reform 360 study offers additional significant insight into employers' plans for health care coverage, levels of awareness of the law and its various provisions, sources of information and concerns as well as opportunities for insurers and brokers. Full results include a segmentation of U.S. firms on various aspects of coverage intentions and Health Care Reform.
Market Strategies International's Health Care Reform 360 study is a multi-dimensional, multi-phased research program that illuminates health care reform attitudes, awareness, perceptions and behaviors among multiple health care stakeholder groups. For this study, Market Strategies conducted a Web survey between October 27 and November 8, 2010 using the Research Now Web panel with a national sample of 1,065 adults. Qualified respondents were employee health benefits decision makers or influencers at companies with at least 2 FTEs. The sample was stratified by firm size (number of FTEs) and health benefits status (offer/not) and weighted to the overall U.S. employer benefits market based on population estimates provided in the 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation HRET Employer Health Benefits Survey. Due to its opt-in nature, this online panel (like most others) does not yield a random probability sample of the target population. As such, it is not possible to compute a margin of error or to statistically quantify the accuracy of projections.
