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Obamacare Architect Predicts End of Employer Coverage

Shift could cause major problems for Democrats

Ezekiel Emanuel, who helped create Obamacare, expects a fundamental shift away from employer coverage in his new book, Reinventing American Health Care. 

The number of employers offering health coverage in Massachusetts increased after the state passed a similar law, but Emanuel believes Obamacare will have a different outcome.

The New York Times reports:

By his estimation, the proportion of private-sector workers who receive health care from employers will fall below 20 percent by 2025. Currently, just under 60 percent of private-sector workers get health care from employers.

"It’ll be a matter of a few big employers, blue-chip companies," Mr. Emanuel said in an interview. "Then it’s going to be the norm." […]

His former colleagues in the Obama White House say there is no evidence the law will bring "the end of employer-sponsored insurance."

Right now, an end to employer-paid health care is about the last thing Democrats want, especially as they face midterm elections in a defensive crouch after the administration’s bungled rollout of the health care law last fall. "It would be a big, big problem politically," said Jonathan Gruber, an M.I.T. health economist who also advised the White House on the law.