Report from Massachusetts: employers largely support health care reform, and few signs of crowd-out appear.
Based on a 2007 survey of 1,056 randomly selected Massachusetts firms, this paper presents findings about employers' attitudes about, knowledge of, and responses to recently enacted reform legislation. A majority of Massachusetts employers agree that all employers bear some responsibility for providing health benefits, firms not offering benefits should be required to pay a "fair share" contribution up to $295 annually per employee, and employers with ten or fewer employees should not be exempt from this requirement. Only 24 percent of employers with 3-50 workers are familiar with the Connector purchasing pool. About 3 percent of Massachusetts small employers intend to drop coverage, similar to national figures.
Gabel
Jon R
JR
NORC, University of Chicago, Washington, DC, USA. Gabel-Jon@NORC.org
Whitmore
Heidi
H
Pickreign
Jeremy
J
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D004651:Employment / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005260:Female; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D018166:Health Care Reform; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008404:Massachusetts; D012941:Social Responsibility; D019472:Universal Health Insurance / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence