Question: Are large employers expected to use the exchanges?

Answer: Yes. William E. Kramer, Executive Director for National Health Policy at the Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH) pointed out in a recent paper, “In the short term, from 2014 to 2016, many of these employers are giving serious consideration to using the exchanges to help provide coverage for part-time workers and for retirees not yet eligible for Medicare. In the long term, beginning in 2017, some large employers are considering using the exchanges to provide coverage for all of their employees. Costs, human resources strategies, and competitive pressures, as well as state and federal policy, will be the likely drivers of large employers’ decisions about whether—and how—to use the exchanges.”

We know that some large employers have already asked their health benefit advisers to “run the numbers” on various scenarios that involve paying the play of pay tax and directing some or all of their employees to the individual Exchange in 2014.