The share of both private-sector self-insured health plans and number of covered workers in self-insured health plans have increased among small- and midsized firms since enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, according to new research from the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).
While the data do not demonstrate that ACA is conclusively the cause of the growth in self-insured plans, they “are consistent with the prediction that the ACA would cause more small- and midsized employers to adopt self-insured plans,” said Paul Fronstin, director of EBRI’s Health Research and Education Program and author of the report.