Even though the employee benefits mandate has been postponed to 2016 – giving business places more of an opportunity to abide by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – fewer employees signed up for coverage through their workplace this year, particularly among men and women under the age of 30.
According to payroll-services firm Automatic Data Processing, the rate of young workers who signed up for health insurance through their employer dropped 1.4 percent from 2013 to 2014, The Wall Street Journal recently reported.
Though the worker take-up rate largely held stable, the slight decline comes as a surprise to many people in the coverage industry, given the amount of attention that's been devoted to health insurance and the ACA.
Vivian Ho, an economist at Rice University who specializes in health care, indicated that this may stem from the health care law provision, which allows older adults to stay on their parents' policies until they turn 26. However, despite this being well publicized, it's not something that's widely known four years after the rule was announced.
"It was surprising how many people didn't even know about that particular benefit," Ho told the WSJ, citing some of her own research.
Limited enrollment may also be due to businesses adjusting plans and eligibility requirements in order to save on costs. According to the American Health Policy Institute, the total cost of the ACA for all large employers in the next decade is projected to be between $151 billion and $186 billion. Additionally, among employers with 10,000 or more workers, employee coverage costs will average between $4,800 and $5,900 per person.
