The large employer gets assessed at $2000-$3000 per employee per year, (as tax penalty) and this $2000-$3000 per employee is not tax deductible, as paying for insurance would be, and the large employer's employees would not be eligible for any subsidies if he offers them the $375 towards health insurance on the exchange, AND the $375 that he would give employees to buy insurance is also not tax deductible because the law states you must be buying the health insurance for the employee, not for the employee to buy their own, so the IRS would not allow that $375 as a deduction...they could just give them all a $375 raise, then that could be deductible, i suppose....
Most large companies offer health care insurance because their employees demand it, and when they go and get rid of the benefit, it is the beginning of their best employees to a mass exodus, of them leaving and going to companies that do offer it....
Before the Obama care mandate, large corporations could have dropped their insurance any time they wanted, or never have offered it in the first place....there was nothing stopping them, no penalties or any of that...yet most of them offered health care insurance....for recruiting the best employees.
Good luck to your friend's company!