Nearly half the people who get health insurance through the HealthCare.gov marketplace own or work at small businesses or are self-employed.

But given the rising cost of health insurance, the number of small businesses considering level funded plans has grown substantially. The Kaiser Foundation has found that the number of small employers offering level funded health plans has increased from 13% in 2020 to about 40% by 2023.

(b) plans give small businesses a new tool to help workers pay for health care and take risk management into their own hands.

And I’m not alone. Nationwide, 24 million Americans count on these tax credits to get by. If they expire, premiums will more than double, according to KFF, and 3.8 million people are projected to lose coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

We propose a way to connect premium tax credits with health reimbursement arrangements for small businesses that have long struggled to offer health benefits.

Three different surveys reflect the degree to which employers expect — and dread — their workplace health care expenses will spike next year. Those include recently released findings by consulting firm Mercer that showed the 1,700 companies it queried ...