Businesses pick health coverage over fine, survey finds

A majority of business executives will not forego providing health insurance to employees even though the fine for not offering coverage could be cheaper, a national survey by Crain Communications found.  

Of the nearly 3,700 executives that took part in the survey, over 52 percent of them strongly disagreed with the statement that it would be better for their organization to stop offering health care benefits to employees and instead pay the $2,000 per-worker annual fine for not providing coverage.

More than 15 percent somewhat disagreed with the notion of dropping coverage and paying the fine. 

Eighteen percent somewhat agreed with the idea of dropping coverage. Approximately 14 percent felt their organization would be better off by no longer providing health insurance to their workers. 

The new healthcare law requires companies with at least 50 full-time workers to provide health care coverage or pay the fine.  

Company size mattered greatly in executives' decision to keep or drop health coverage. 

Over 64 percent of executives with at least 25,000 workers believed their companies were better off by keeping their coverage. 

An overwhelming majority, 65.7 percent, also viewed providing health care critical to employee recruiting.