Obamacare: Bureaucrats Underestimated Companies Likely to Drop Health Coverage

Way to go, Obamacarians!  Opponents warned that the law incentivized private employers to drop health insurance companies and pay the fines, that will be less expensive than providing coverage.  And now, a report published in the McKinsey Quarterly shows that 30% of employers are planning to boot their employees off the company health insurance bus.  From the story (registration required):

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that only about 7 percent of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) will have to switch to subsidized-exchange policies in 2014. However, our early-2011 survey of more than 1,300 employers across industries, geographies, and employer sizes, as well as other proprietary research, found that reform will provoke a much greater response.

However, our early-2011 survey of more than 1,300 employers across industries, geographies, and employer sizes, as well as other proprietary research, found that reform will provoke a much greater response.

• Overall, 30 percent of employers will definitely or probably stop offering ESI in the years after 2014.
• Among employers with a high awareness of reform, this proportion increases to more than 50 percent, and upward of 60 percent will pursue some alternative to traditional ESI.
• At least 30 percent of employers would gain economically from dropping coverage even if they completely compensated employees for the change through other benefit offerings or higher salaries.
• Contrary to what many employers assume, more than 85 percent of employees would remain at their jobs even if their employer stopped offering ESI, although about 60 percent would expect increased compensation.

Gee, government bureaucrats getting their predictions wrong? Gee, when has that ever happened before?

Obamacare must go.