Studies disagree on fate of employer-provided healthcare coverage

Federal healthcare reform will result in more or fewer Americans receiving health insurance through their employers, depending on which studies you choose to believe.

Sixty-one percent of nonelderly Americans obtained coverage through employers in 2009, down from 69% in 2000. People from low- and moderate-income families employed by small firms were the most likely to lose coverage. That downward trend in employer coverage was one of the impetuses behind passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Recent studies by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute concluded that healthcare reform will make it more likely that employers, particularly small businesses, will provide coverage once the law fully takes effect in 2014.

The affordable care act provides some tax incentives for small businesses to provide coverage and penalizes large employers with workers on subsidized coverage.