Why This Survey Matters

Employers are facing sustained pressure from rising health insurance premiums, labor market competition, and economic uncertainty. At the same time, ICHRAs represent a fundamentally different approach to offering health benefits — one that shifts from defined benefits to defined contributions and relies on the individual insurance market as the primary source of coverage.

Despite growing interest, there are limited national data on:

• When employers consider ICHRAs as a viable alternative.
• What cost pressures or market conditions trigger that consideration.
• How confident employers are in the individual market to support such a shift.

This survey is designed to fill those gaps with rigorous, policy-relevant evidence.

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What the Survey Examines

This survey provides new, national evidence on how employers are responding to rising health care costs and evolving benefit options, including:

• How recent premium increases are affecting benefit design, compensation, and hiring decisions.
• Employers’ awareness, use, and consideration of ICHRAs as an alternative to traditional group plans.
• The cost thresholds at which employers would seriously consider shifting from a group plan to an ICHRA.
• Employer confidence in the individual health insurance market compared with the group market.
• The influence of brokers, administrators, and policy incentives on employer decisions.

By measuring when cost pressures lead employers to reconsider their benefit strategies, the survey identifies practical tipping points that matter for employers, policymakers, and market participants.

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Sponsor Benefits

Organizations that sponsor the survey will receive:

• Direct input into the development of the survey questionnaire.
• Participation in research readout and briefing sessions.
• Full access to comprehensive survey results and underlying data.
• Ability to use the data for internal analysis and strategic planning.
• Recognition as an industry leader supporting independent, data-driven research.
• Opportunities to participate in conference panels, webinars, and related discussions.
• Visibility across EBRI research outputs, including publications, press releases, the EBRI website, and social media.

Sponsors will be recognized on all public-facing research products, and EBRI will actively promote the findings across its channels.

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Current Sponsors

We gratefully acknowledge the organizations that are supporting this research.