The Washington Post (4/8, Millman) reports in its “Wonkblog” that about 6 million Americans with employer-sponsored coverage in 2014 “received their health insurance through privately run health insurance exchanges, where employees can select coverage from a number of health plans — double the number from the year before, according to a new report from Accenture.” The piece cites this as evidence of “a big shift” in how businesses offer health insurance to workers. By pooling more employees together, “the plans can have lower insurance rates.” The exchanges “are also increasingly offering technology tools to make the process of selecting a health plan a little less daunting.”

Bloomberg News (4/8) reports that Accenture estimates that by 2018, a quarter of employees who get health insurance through their work will choose a plan through private insurance exchanges. According to Bloomberg, the shift “mirrors trends in Obamacare, where the U.S. gives people tax credits to help buy insurance on government markets.”

Modern Healthcare (4/7), Subscription Publication) also reports the story.

Jeffrey R. Ungvary President