Little is certain about the future of employee benefits,particularly health care insurance.

A session at the CUNA Human Resources and Training DevelopmentConference in Anaheim, Calif., earlier this week brought that pointhome.

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Nonetheless, Mike Evert, employee benefits product manager withCUNA Mutual Group in Madison, Wis., and David Martin, managingprincipal for credit union services with Digital Benefit Advisorsin Atlanta, expect the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable CareAct, otherwise known as Obamacare, to drive the following three toptrends over the next few years:

How health care premiums are paid

How health care premiums are paid is expected to shift fromtraditional employer health insurance coverage to a definedcontribution approach to offer health insurance to employees.

Under a defined contribution plan, employers give employees aset amount of funds to select a health insurance plan that bestsuits their needs. This is expected to enable credit unions toanticipate what their health care costs will be year over year.

How health care is purchased

How health care coverage is purchased will transformdramatically over the coming years. Because fewer employers areexpected to offer traditional health care insurance, this willdrive employees to buy health care insurance on private or publichealth insurance exchanges.

The exchanges are expected to help consumers compare insuranceplans, options and costs. Employers who continue to offer healthcare coverage are expected to participate in or open a healthinsurance exchange. The public exchanges administered by the stateor federal governments are scheduled to open Jan. 1, 2014.

How consumer-driven plans are growing

Increasing in popularity are consumer-driven health insuranceplans, offering lower premiums through higher deductibles thantraditional health insurance plans. The CDHPs provide taxadvantages and increase personal accountability among consumerswhen purchasing medical services.

However, CDHPs can't solve the problem alone because greateremphasis on medical cost transparency is imperative. “We can't askfor personal accountability when health care providers aren'twilling to share their fees,” said Martin.