As bad as things are getting I don't think it is going to be killed. The GOP-e represents mid to large size businesses. I believe these business interests are now happy to be relieved of providing healthcare coverage to employees. Talking with a property management executive a couple weeks ago I was told this company plans on giving employees a stipend/bonus egual to their health insurance cost minus the tax penalty when the employer mandate kicks in.
Absolutely correct, sir. It will be a race to the bottom.
Nothing was stopping them from doing that before. Individual health insurance plans were always available. The reason companies offer health insurance is as a benefit to make their employees happy. If they stop the benefit, they risk losing their employees to another company who still provides it. And unless their employees are below average wage, the employees are going to have to pay more for their insurance now than they would have on the individual market before Obamacare.
The “free lunch” logic applies to employers as well as individuals. If they’re think they’re going to save money by pushing costs on the government, who is only going to drive costs and inefficiency up more and eventually have to raise taxes to run a health care system more expensive than it was previously, they’re wrong.