Focus

The Affordable Care Act (ACA)—regardless of its critics and proponents—will affect all businesses in some way. The Kaiser Family Foundation and its Health Research & Education Trust conducted a survey in 2012 to learn how large companies (more than 200 employees) and small companies (three to 199 employees) approach health care coverage and benefits.

According to the survey, 98 percent of large companies offer health care benefits compared with 61 percent of small companies. The top reasons why small companies don't offer health care benefits? They say the costs are too high, employees are covered elsewhere and their companies are too small.

Among the small companies that do not offer health care benefits, 15 percent shopped for insurance within the past year compared with 39 percent who shopped for health insurance in 2007.

For companies offering health insurance, employees at small companies contribute 16 percent of their annual premium costs, and employees at large companies contribute 18 percent. The gap widens for family coverage: employees at small companies contribute 35 percent of their annual premium costs; employees at large companies contribute 25 percent.

But the startling difference lies in the percent of employers who pay employees' full premiums: 36 percent of small companies pay full premiums for single coverage, and 16 percent pay full premiums for family coverage. Large companies are far more conservative—only 6 percent pay full premiums for single coverage and 2 percent pay full premiums for family coverage. The costs of coverage nationwide among companies of all sizes using all types of plans are more or less the same—variances are less than $100 for single coverage and less than $1,000 for family coverage.

The data certainly will change following full implementation of the ACA, and it is clear many companies (those with 50 or more employees) not currently offering health care coverage will be affected dramatically.

Ambika Puniani Bailey is editor of Profes­sional Roofing and NRCA's associate executive director of communications and production.