Small-Group Insurance Market Remains Stable Under ACA
About half of small-firm employees worked for an establishment that offered health insurance from 2013 to 2020, and the small-group market has remained relatively stable since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, according to a recent Urban Institute study. Employee coverage rates at small firms — which have fewer than 50 employees — dropped 2 percentage points, from 57.1% in 2013 to 55.1% in 2020. Meanwhile, employees’ contributions to single and family coverage in the small-group market rose during the study period by 2.3 and 6.0 percentage points, respectively. Though many people anticipated that small firms would transition to self-insurance to avoid ACA’s regulations, small firms were much less likely than larger firms to offer a self-insured plan between 2013 and 2020.