In California, 54 percent of health care coverage provided to residents under 65 is sponsored by our state’s employers, down from 61 percent prior to enactment of the federal law in 2010. Last week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) advised Congress that seven million fewer Americans were forecast to have employer-sponsored health insurance in 2022 due to the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The estimate is up from August, when the CBO predicted a drop of four million people with employer-sponsored plans.

Most of this displacement will take the form of a shift from employer-sponsored coverage to coverage sponsored by the state-based exchanges created by the PPACA. (A small portion will move to Medicaid.) The CBO reports that coverage for an estimated 26 million people through the exchanges will cost the federal government $134 billion per year.

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