Free Ride: The Senate Health Bill’s Approach to “Employer Responsibility” Means Some Large Employers Get to Take It Easy

Leaders in both the House and the Senate have committed to "shared responsibility" as a basic principle of health care reform, meaning that the costs of health care coverage are shared by individuals, businesses, and the public sector. However, as this issue brief documents, the Senate version of the bill creates a free rider problem that would make it easy for many large and profitable employers, particularly the ones paying poor wages, to shirk their responsibilities.