The Impact of PPACA on Employer Sponsored Health Insurance: An Analysis of Employer Motivations to Self-Insure Health Benefits
Open Access
Author:
Mosier, Tiffany Lynn
Area of Honors:
Actuarial Science
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
David Arthur Cather, Thesis Supervisor Ron Gebhardtsbauer, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
PPACA health insurance self-insurance employer-sponsored plans
Abstract:
With the passing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) on March 23, 2010, health care reform is underway. The provisions of the act take effect over the next decade and will have varying effects on insurers, employers, and individuals. Currently, the most popular method of receiving health insurance is through an employer sponsored plan. Within employer sponsored plans, more than half of the covered workers are part of a partially or fully self-insured health benefits plan.
Given this significant number of people receiving coverage through employer sponsored plans and specifically through self-insured plans, this thesis will identify employers’ motivations for self-insuring their employees’ health benefits based on the changing environment of health care. It will discuss the importance of employer sponsored health benefits as well as the current health care environment and the inflation of health care costs to provide an understanding of the relevance of the topic.
Since PPACA has implemented and will implement many changes to employers’ motivations for self-insuring health benefits, the thesis will contrast their motivations pre-PPACA and post-PPACA to provide a complete understanding of why employers choose to self-insure health benefits instead of purchasing a fully insured health plan from an insurer.
