Report: Large Employers Could Shift Nearly all Workers’ Health Coverage to Marketplace by 2020

A new investor report predicts that Standard & Poor's 500 companies could shift 90 percent of their workforce from job-based health coverage to individual insurance sold on the nation's marketplaces by 2020. 

If all U.S. companies with 50 or more employees followed suit, they could collectively save $3.25 trillion through 2025, according to the report by S&P Capital IQ, a division of McGraw Hill Financial. 

Standard & Poor's 500 companies could save $689 billion over the same period if they did likewise, the report found. Savings for S&P 500 companies could top $800 billion if health care inflation remains at the traditional 7.5 percent rate over the next decade, the report estimates. 

If realized, the larger move to marketplace coverage would shift more of the cost and responsibility for employee health insurance to workers themselves. ...

Source: Tony Pugh at the McClatchy Washington Bureau.