Employers, for better or for worse, are investing more in healthcare for their employees, according to a new survey commissioned bythe Transamerica Center for Health Studies and conducted by HarrisPoll in August.

The survey, which included 1,500 business executives across thecountry found that the percentage of companies that do not provideany health benefit to employees is at an-all time low — 18 percent.That's up from 21 percent two years ago, before the PatientProtection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was implemented.

Virtually all firms (99 percent) with more than 50 employeesprovide their full-time workers with health care, compared to only61 percent of businesses with fewer than 50 employees.

The survey found that half of business executives believe thecost of health care will remain stable over the next two to threeyears. A significant minority — 44 percent — believe costs willincrease, while a negligible 5 percent expect costs to go down.

Similarly, half of employers said they believe the quality ofhealth care will stay the same in the coming years, compared to 40percent who say it will improve and 10 percent who expect it to getworse.

Most employers say that they plan to keep health costs constantacross the board. That means they are not envisioning raising theamount spent by the company or employees on premiums, deductiblesor co-pays.

Thirty percent of employers said they were looking to maximizeemployee contributions to premiums and 27 percent said they hopedto maximize workers' contributions to deductibles, while 26 percentsaid they were looking to maximize their own contribution toinsurance premiums. However, far fewer expressed interest in“minimizing” either employer or employee contributions toinsurance.

Employers also are offering more health plans to employees,often adding high-deductible plans and consumer-driven options inaddition to traditional PPO or HMO options. However, employers thatonly offer one plan are much more likely to offer a PPO.

There does not appear to be much of a difference betweenmid-size businesses (between 50 and 500 workers) and larger ones.But small employers are far less likely to offer high-deductibleplans, consumer-driven plans and health savings accounts. Half oflarge companies offer HSAs and a third offer consumer-driven plans,while only 28 percent of small employers offer HSAs and only 17percent offer consumer-driven plans.

Forty-five percent of employers worry they'll be hit with theCadillac plan tax tax because of their generous health carebenefits, and few of them appear resigned to forking over moremoney to Uncle Sam. In fact, 84 percent of employers thatanticipate being subject to the tax are planning to avoid it byparing down benefits.

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