Corporate America is taking a hard look at moving retirees and part-time workers into health insurance marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a survey by the National Business Group on Health (NGBH) suggests.
 
According to the survey, some large companies also expect their own coverage of full-time workers and spouses to be purchased through the state-based insurance exchanges authorized by the ACA, Kaiser Health News reports. The health care reform law bars large employers from buying on state exchanges until 2017, but their workers and dependents are free to buy coverage that way as individuals.   
 
The survey predates the Obama administration’s decision to delay until 2015 the requirement that large employers offer coverage to certain workers, so some company plans may have changed, NGBH cautioned. An association of large employers that offer what are often substantial medical benefits, NGBH polled its membership about their plans for 2014. Nearly a third of its 360 members, most with more than 10,000 employees each, responded to the survey.
 
The survey asked whether employers expected various groups “who may currently be covered by your plans will choose public exchange coverage when it becomes available in 2014.” While 40 percent predicted no change, a fifth of those responding expected part-time workers to buy exchange plans next year. The health law does not require employer coverage for those who work less than 30 hours a week.
 
An even greater percentage — 41% — figured former employees on the company plan under COBRA provisions would buy instead in the subsidized online exchanges next year.
 
(The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of the 1980s allows workers to maintain company coverage even after they leave their jobs by paying the premiums themselves.)