A survey of small employers by eHealth, Inc. has found many struggling to understand their legal responsibilities and new choices under the Affordable Care Act.
eHealth surveyed 259 small business owners who purchased coverage on eHealthInsurance.com, with 95 percent of the respondents having between 2 and 10 employees.
About 56 percent of respondents misunderstood portions of the ACA's employer mandate, with 32 percent believing they will be required to provide group health insurance in 2014, regardless of the number of employees, and 24 percent believing they will have to pay a penalty for failing to provide group coverage.
As the Department of Health and Human Services ramps up education and outreach for exchanges -- recently redubbed marketplaces in official communications -- only 18 percent of respondents said they could confidently describe or a define a HIX. Two-thirds of respondents said they had no understanding of exchanges at all, while 20 percent said they partly understood the role of exchanges under the ACA.
eHealth also probed the business owners on their insurance shopping preferences, with a majority saying they "do not want to be forced to buy health insurance through any single source, such as a government exchange or through a private marketplace/ exchange like eHealthInsurance.com."
More than two-thirds of the respondents said they want the option to buy insurance from a source of their choice; 24 percent said they preferred buying exclusively through a private company, while about 5 percent said they preferred to working solely with public exchanges.
A majority of the business owners -- 67 percent -- told the survey they don't anticipate ending group coverage in 2014, while 27 percent said they may stop offering insurance and only six percent were planning on ending coverage.
About 70 percent of the respondents said they'll need help understanding their options in 2014. Among their largest healthcare concerns, about 80 percent were worried about knowing all their options and getting the best price, and 68 percent were worried about finding the highest quality health plan.
As far as confidence in sources of insurance information, 72 percent of the business owners said they place a high amount of trust in their insurance broker, 30 percent said they trust their business association, 28 percent said they trust their insurance company, and 24 percent said they trust the government.
Almost 60 percent of the small employers surveyed (during February) expect their healthcare costs to increase as a result of the ACA, while 11 percent think costs will fall and 21 percent said they weren't sure one way or the other.
See also:
The WBE option: Private HIXs look for a role public exchanges