News Notes: Study Reveals Why Many Small Employers Don’t Offer Health Insurance

Some common misconceptions keep small employers from offering health benefits to their employees, according to a recent study by the UCLA/UC Berkeley Health Insurance Policy Program. The study revealed that 38 percent of California employers with 10 to 50 employees don’t offer coverage. The reasons why include these erroneous perceptions: it’s too expensive; it doesn’t affect the employer’s ability to recruit or retain workers or affect employee productivity and absenteeism; employees prefer a larger paycheck instead of benefits; and the employer must pay 100 percent of health insurance premiums.