Study of the Response of Small Businesses to State Health Insurance Exchanges, 2012-2013

This survey studied small businesses' health insurance offerings and their owners' knowledge about health insurance exchanges and other Affordable Care Act provisions in five of the states participating in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's State Health Reform Assistance Network: Alabama, Colorado, Minnesota, New York and Oregon. Statewide online and computer-assisted telephone interviews provided baseline information -- before the establishment of the ACA's individual or Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) exchanges -- on the types of health insurance offered by small firms with 3 to 100 employees, which workers were offered insurance, and the cost of that coverage to the employer and employee. Other topics covered by the survey include the firms' characteristics, reasons for offering or not offering health insurance, claims for the ACA small business tax credit, general impressions of the ACA, changes the firms made to their health insurance benefits in response to ACA provisions, and whether the availability of coverage in the new individual and SHOP exchanges would influence their decisions to offer health insurance in the future.