Survey Finds Obamacare Means Nearly 10% of Businesses to Drop Coverage

As President Obama's health-care overhaul takes effect in the next few years, close to one-in-ten employers will stop offering health-care coverage for their workers, according to a new study. Companies with between 50 and 100 workers will be most likely to drop coverage for employees, according to the findings.

Deloitte, a consulting company, found that once changes are enforced in the health-care system via the Affordable Care Act, 9% of employers will drop offerings in the following one-to-three years. Deloitte found 81% were planning to continue offering coverage and 10% were unsure of how they would proceed.

Close to one-third of respondents said they might drop coverage if Obamacare forces them to provide better benefits than they currently do, or if the cost of not offering benefits is less than the cost-per-worker to offer health insurance. Businesses with at least 50 employees will be subject to paying $2,000 per-worker, per-year. There are tax breaks for businesses that do offer coverage.

Deloitte's survey findings were different from those of a similar study conducted by the Congressional Budget Office, which estimated that nearly 7% of businesses would drop coverage once Obamacare is implemented.

Less than 2% of companies with more than 1,000 workers said they were considering dropping coverage for their workers, while companies with 50-to-100 employees were most likely to report they would drop insurance, at 13%.

Deloitte surveyed 560 workers currently offering insurance between February and April. Although the survey was conducted prior to the Supreme Court's ruling on the law, Deloitte said that does not impact the results because most respondents expected the Affordable Care Act to be upheld.