Employers: Keep Health Care in Our Hands

Hope and Change for Health Care? President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to overhaul the U.S. health care system. But while the plan may look good on paper, private employers remain wary of it. Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of companies that provide health insurance say employer-based health care ought to remain the primary means for delivering benefits, according to a report by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, based in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Replacing the nation’s health apparatus with a government-run initiative is favored by about one-quarter of the 1,054 people surveyed, including benefit-plan sponsors, trustees and other professionals in employee benefits. One in five support universal coverage plans. Although nearly three-quarters agree that a major overhaul is needed, less than of half of those responding expect major reforms to become law during the upcoming presidential term.