How Large Employers Plan to Respond to ObamaCare

This is a Chris Jacobs report on a new Towers Watson study:

• “The overwhelming majority (90%) of employers believe health care reform will increase their organization’s health care benefit costs;”
• Nearly nine in ten firms (88%) plan to pass increased costs from the law on to their employees through higher premiums;
• Nearly three in four firms (74%) plan to pass the law’s higher costs on to their employees by changing plan options, restricting eligibility, or increasing deductibles or co-pays;
• More than one in ten firms plan to pass on the law’s higher costs by reducing employment (12%) or reducing employer contributions to retirement plans like 401(k)s (11%);
• Of those firms offering coverage, 43% are “likely to eliminate or reduce retiree medical programs” as a result of the law’s enactment