The COVID-19 pandemic and recent elections are changing the national conversation around expanding health care coverage and reining in rising health care costs. President Biden campaigned on a platform of expanding access to public health coverage in ways that could change the role of employer-sponsored health insurance, which currently covers about half of all Americans.

On Thursday, April 29, a public web briefing explored how large employers view the burden of rising health care costs and the role of government in addressing them.

Organized by the Purchaser Business Group on Health (PBGH), KFF (the Kaiser Family Foundation), and West Health, the briefing featured results from a new survey of more than 300 executive decisionmakers at large companies with at least 5,000 workers.  

The briefing included an overview of policy options under consideration in Washington, a discussion of the survey’s implications, and remarks from U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, ranking member of the Senate HELP Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety, and Rep. Bobby Scott, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. Other participants included:

• Lanhee Chen, David and Diane Steffy Fellow in American Public Policy Studies, Hoover Institute
• Gary Claxton, Senior Vice President, KFF
• Chris Jennings, Founder and President, Jennings Policy Strategies
• Bill Kramer, Executive Director for Health Policy, PBGH
• Timothy A. Lash, Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President, West Health
• Larry Levitt, Executive Vice President for Health Policy, KFF
• Elizabeth Mitchell, President and CEO, PBGH