Santa Clara County Employers: Number Offering Fair Economic Choice of Health Benefits Plans

Employer decisions regarding the number of different health benefits plans offered and how premium costs are divided between the employer and the employee affect the extent of competition among plans in a community. We believe competition creates the most effective controls on health care costs. We applied relevant statistical techniques to answer the question: What percentage of public and private employers in Santa Clara County offer a choice of at least 2 plans and pay the same amount toward the premium for each of the plans offered by the employer?. Our results show that most employers in Santa Clara County are not promoting competition in this sense.