A recent Employee
Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) survey asked employees if they would be
willing to exchange their health benefits for an additional $7,500 in taxable
income, which was about the average per-employee cost of health benefits for
employees and their dependents in 2006. The collective answer from employees
was a definitive “no.”
Seventy-six percent of
employees would choose the employer-provided health coverage over an additional
$7,500 in taxable income, the survey revealed. For these workers to give up
their coverage, 22 percent say that their employer would have to give them an
additional $10,000 in taxable income, and 25 percent said their employer would
have to give them $15,000 or more. Meanwhile, 15 percent said that no amount of
additional taxable income would be enough for them to give up their
employer-provided coverage.
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The bottom line:
American workers value their employment-based health benefits above the actual
dollar amount that employers pay toward the coverage, according to EBRI.
The survey also reported
that most employees are confident that their employer will continue to provide such
coverage. Twenty-eight percent reported they were “extremely” confident that
their employer would keep providing healthcare benefits, 30 percent were “very”
confident, and 28 percent were “somewhat” confident. However, 6 percent of
respondents were “not too” confident and another 6 percent were “not at all”
confident.