Traditional group health coverage agents and brokers may have succeeded at fending off the private exchange programs.
Analysts at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Education Trust have included data supporting that possibility in a summary of results from their major U.S. employer survey,
The term "private exchange" has been notoriously difficult to define, but only 4% of survey employers with 50 or more workers say they are using a private exchange program to provide coverage this year. That's the same as in 2016.
Similarlly, the employers surveyed appeared to be using what they identified as private exchange programs to provide health coverage for just 2% of the covered workers at employers with 50 or more workers. That percentage was the same as in 2016.
Employer use of private exchange programs was higher at the smallest employers included in the private exchange survey results: those with 50 to 199 covered workers.
About 5% of the employers with 50 to 199 covered workers are using private exchange programs.
