Similarly, half of employers said they believe the quality of health care will stay the same in the coming years, compared to 40% who said it will improve and 10% who expected it to get worse.

Most employers said that they plan to keep health costs constant across the board. That means they were not envisioning raising the amount spent by the company or employees on premiums, deductibles or co-pays.

Thirty percent of employers said they were looking to maximize employee contributions to premiums and 27% said they hoped to maximize workers' contributions to deductibles, while 26% said they were looking to maximize their own contribution to insurance premiums. However, far fewer expressed interest in “minimizing” either employer or employee contributions to insurance.

Employers also were offering more health plans to employees, often adding high-deductible plans and consumer-driven options in addition to traditional PPO or HMO options. However, employers that only offer one plan were much more likely to offer a PPO.

There did not appear to be much of a difference between mid-size businesses (between 50 and 500 workers) and larger ones. But small employers were far less likely to offer high-deductible plans, consumer-driven plans and health savings accounts. Half of large companies offered HSAs and a third offered consumer-driven plans, while only 28% of small employers offered HSAs and only 17% offered consumer-driven plans.

Forty-five percent of employers worried they'll be hit with the Cadillac tax because of their generous health care benefits, and few of them appeared resigned to forking over more money to Uncle Sam. In fact, 84% of employers that anticipate being subject to the tax were planning to avoid it by paring down benefits.