Thanks for your comment.

My impression from the meeting was that most people were dealing with health insurance costs as just another increasing expense that they were stuck with. They were an issue, and an especially annoying one, because most felt pretty powerless to do much about it. But it still wasn’t an issue that was causing a crisis in their businesses.

My sense in general was that, in this economy, all had more pressing concerns.

These executives are some of the most caring people I know. While there was some discussion of the existence of ways to cut benefits, there was no appetite for leaving employees under-insured. Indeed, quite the opposite.

One employer described considering switching to a high deductible plan, and reimbursing employees for their deductibles. Overall, it would be cheaper for the business, and would leave his employees with no new exposure.