While many are still debating whether the Affordable Care Act will strengthen or break down the employer-based health system, a new study by the Rand Corporation finds the ACA will strengthen it.
The study, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, was based on a simulation of how the Affordable Care Act will affect the current system.
According to Rand, the number of workers offered coverage will increase from 115.1 million (84.6 percent of the approximately 136 million U.S. workers) to 128.7 million (94.6 percent) after the reform.
While only 60.4 percent of workers at businesses with 50 or fewer employees now have an offer of coverage, that is projected to increase to 85.9 percent after the reform, according to the study.
The increase is not driven by penalties levied on employers with more than 50 workers, Rand researchers found.
According to the study, the large increase in offers provided by small businesses is driven primarily by greater demand for coverage by workers due to individual penalties for being uninsured and the availability of new, often lower-cost insurance options, known as health insurance exchanges."After the reform, we predict that nearly three of four workers offered coverage by small businesses will receive that offer through the exchanges," Rand researches said.
The ACA will have a lesser effect on large employers, since most already offer insurance coverage to their workers. Of the 13.6 million workers newly offered coverage, only 3.2 million will be employed by firms large enough to be subject to employer penalties, according to the study.