Even before the Affordable Care Act was enacted into law, policymakers, politicians and industry leaders have debated the impact it will have on employer-sponsored health coverage. Approximately 150 million Americans get their health insurance through their jobs. As implementation of the ACA moves forward, it has many people wondering about the fate of employer-sponsored insurance.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, an accounting firm that analyzed the healthcare reform in Massachusetts, found that employer-sponsored insurance rose in the years after the legislation was passed, even as coverage continued to decline nationally.
The math provided by PricewaterhouseCoopers showed what the employer-sponsored insurance will mean for employers and for employees once Obamacare is implemented. As the firm explained, compensating workers will enable businesses to save money when they provide a combination of salary and health insurance because of the federal tax exclusions. For example, if a company provides coverage to a worker earning $52,000 per year in 2014, it will save $2,550.87 because of tax deductions from the insurance. When workers obtain health insurance through their employer, their take-home pay is higher. A family with a combined income of $92,000 in 2014 that has employer-sponsored coverage earns $3,097.50 more in pay by taking advantage of the federal tax exclusion for the insurance.
Analysis Article courtesy PricewaterhouseCoopers.
