Sep 5 2013
The Wall Street Journal examines private health insurance marketplaces in which many employees of small and mid-size businesses can expect to receive health benefits from their employer.
The Wall Street Journal: More Employers Overhaul Health Benefits
This fall, tens of thousands of U.S. workers will learn that they're getting their health benefits next year in a radical new way: Their employers will give them a fixed sum of money and let them choose their plan from an online marketplace. ... The private exchanges for employers are separate from the government-operated marketplaces that are being created in each state under the federal health law, which will serve individual consumers and small companies (Mathews, 9/3).
The Wall Street Journal's Corporate Intelligence: FAQ: What Workers Need To Know About Private Employer Exchanges
Online marketplaces, known as private exchanges, allow employers to offer their workers a range of choices for health-insurance coverage. Companies jumping in -- including benefits-consulting firms like Xerox Corp.'s Buck Consultants, Marsh & McLennan Cos.' Mercer and Towers Watson & Co., as well as insurance brokerages such as Willis Group Holdings PLC and Digital Insurance Inc. -- are betting that 2014 is the year the [private] exchanges will start to take off (Mathews, 9/3).
In the meantime, the Census Bureau says Latinos are the most likely people in the U.S. to go without health insurance --
The Washington Post: Hispanics Most Likely To Go Without Health Insurance
Hispanics are less likely to be covered by health insurance in every state in the union, according to new figures released late last week by the Census Bureau. The figures show more than 30 percent of Hispanics under the age of 65 are uninsured in 28 states, far higher than the rates of uninsured African Americans and whites (Wilson, 9/3).
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 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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