10 Oct 2014 ObamaCare And Employer-Based Insurance: Costs Going Up, Quality Going Down

On Wednesday, we took a look at the effect ObamaCare is having on employment.  It’s also worth examining the impact it is having on employer-based insurance.

In their recent surveys, the Federal Reserve Banks of Dallas, New York and Philadelphia asked businesses whether ObamaCare was causing them to make changes in their health care plans:

That ObamaCare is causing most businesses to make changes in their health plans is not a surprise.  But what kind of changes?  The Dallas Fed survey did not ask questions about that.  The New York and Philadelphia Fed, fortunately, did:

The one bit of good news is that the percentage of businesses that are increasing the number of employees covered exceeds those that are covering fewer employees.  Other than that, the changes are all bad.  The percentage of businesses that are increasing employee contributions, premiums, deductibles, out-of-pocket maximums and co-pays far exceed the percentage that are reducing them in every single case.  As for range of services covered and size and breadth of the networks, the differences between the percentage of businesses that are reducing them versus increasing them aren’t as large, but they are still substantial.

In short, costs are going up and quality is going down.  But, then, what did you expect when the government got involved?