Employers believe that the Supreme Court will overturn the individual mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but will allow different provisions to remain in the law, according to a recent survey.

The International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans’ Supreme Court Affordable Care Act survey asked respondents — plan administrators, trustees and organizational representatives from single-employers/corporations, multiemployer trust funds and public/governmental employers —how they view PPACA. 

While 66% of the respondents think the individual mandate will be struck down but other pieces of the law kept intact, one-third are split between those who think the entire law will remain intact (19%) and those who believe the entire law will be thrown out (15%.)

“While the Foundation recognizes that reaching a consensus on the Affordable Care Act among our membership would be difficult, it’s clear that our members agree that steps must be taken to address the access to quality, affordable health care in America,” says IFEBP CEO Michael Wilson. 

When asked which provisions of the law they would like to be reinstated through new legislation if the high court were to throw out PPACA, organizations and workers agreed on what they would like to remain in the law. They included:

•           Ability to offer increased wellness incentives (33%);

•           Required elimination of pre-existing condition exclusions (23%); and

•           Required coverage of adult children up to age 26 (22%).

The top provisions of PPACA that representatives say workers would like to remain are:

•           Required coverage of adult children up to age 26 (59%);

•           Required elimination of pre-existing condition exclusions (34%); and

•           No cost sharing for preventive care (32%).

Members say they are monitoring the Court closely, but 45% are in a “wait and see” mode.  Three in five organizations are following the Supreme Court decision extremely or very closely and fewer than 2% say they are not monitoring the case at all. Two types of organizations are paying the closest attention to the decision: those with fewer than 50 workers or more than 10,000 workers.