Data on the use of the first large private health exchange for U.S. employers -- providing an online platform for active employees to purchase employer-subsidized coverage -- reveal that enrollees chose the health plan they felt offered the best value for themselves and their family and that they liked being able to select among multiple carriers.

On Feb. 28, 2013, approximately 286 businesses and municipal employers filed an amicus brief in support of a challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), now before the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Jan. 2, 2013, the Internal Revenue Service published in the Federal Register a proposed rule, “Shared Responsibility for Employers Regarding Health Coverage,” that provides details regarding the requirement that employers with 50 or more full-time employees or full-time equivalents offer employees health care coverage with “minimum value,” beginning in 2014.

Annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage reached $15,745 in 2012, up 4% from 2011, with workers on average paying $4,316 toward the cost of their coverage, according to the not-for profit Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) and Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET)'s 2012 Employer Health Benefits Survey report.

Premiums for worker-only health coverage increased 3% in 2012 to reach $5,615 annually. Workers on average pay $951 toward this coverage.