Alliance for Health Reform Employer Toolkit

The Alliance for Health Reform has published a new employer toolkit explaining all of the implications of the ACA on employers. The toolkit - a collection of published news stories and other documents - also includes information about the delay in the mandate to 2015, and analysis about its impact on employer-based coverage.

The toolkit includes: 

• Key facts about the employer mandate 
• Data about trends in employment-based health coverage 
• Links to news articles and reports explaining and analyzing the issue 
• Health care experts who understand the issue and its implications, along with contact info 

In 2011, more than 170 million individuals had employment-based health benefits (55.1 percent of the population), but that is down 11.8 million from 2000, when employers covered 65.1 percent of the population. The ACA contains an incentive for employers to offer affordable health benefits. Starting in 2015, employers with more than 50 full-time employees are required to offer health coverage or pay a $2,000 fee per full-time employee, if any employee receives a subsidy through the state insurance exchange. Critics of the employer mandate say that, rather than being an incentive to keep coverage, the policy will instead drive employers to drop coverage and demote full-time workers to part-time. Proponents of the ACA disagree.