Health Experts and Public Favor Employer Mandates

Employer Mandates: Health care experts and consumers favor requiring employers to “either offer coverage or pay a percent of their payroll to help finance expanded coverage” of health care, according to two recent surveys. The Commonwealth Fund and Modern Healthcare (a sister publication of Workforce Management) reported that 81 percent of health care experts surveyed favored or strongly favored such a mandate. Sixty percent of those surveyed said employer mandates were very important or absolutely essential.

A majority of Americans also favor some form of health care reform now, with more than two-thirds favoring a requirement that employers offer health insurance for their workers or pay money into a government fund that will pay to cover those without insurance, according to a survey of Americans published by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Respondents also said they approved of mandates for employers to provide and individuals to acquire health insurance. However, support for an employer mandate dropped to 29 percent from 71 percent when respondents were asked if they would support an employer mandate if it meant employers would have to lay workers off to pay for it.