Some Employers to Stop Offering Health Care Benefits in 2014

From HealthDay News (news roundup--see first story). We already knew this, right? I went so far as to postulate (back in 2009) that the government itself would stop offering health insurance in the form of Medicare, Medicaid, VA, active duty military, COBRA, and federal employee benefits, and shove EVERYBODY onto these exchanges. Hell, they're already ending the military retirement pensions!

"A new survey finds that nearly 10 percent of midsized or large employers in the United States may stop offering health coverage to workers when insurance exchanges are launched in 2014.

An additional 20 percent of the companies aren't certain what they'll do, according to the survey completed last month by benefits consultant Towers Watson, the Associated Press reported.

A June survey conducted by another benefits consultant, Mercer, found that 8 percent of large and smaller employers said they were either "likely" or "very likely" to end health coverage for their workers when the federal exchanges start.

The exchanges, part of the health care overhaul, are meant to give people an opportunity to shop for insurance that could be subsidized by the government based on the purchaser's income, the AP reported."

So if they're gonna subsidize based on income, aren't we right back where we started?