A vast majority of U.S. workers say they are very satisfied with their employer-provided healthcare benefits, according to a survey by the National Business Group on Health, an association of 266 large U.S. companies.

The survey included 1,619 workers at large U.S. employers.

Sixty-seven percent of respondents said they consider their health plan to be excellent or very good. Seventy-five percent said they value the health plan as the most important benefit.

About three in four employees said they would prefer to get health benefits through their employer rather than getting additional salary to purchase their own. Most employees (83 percent) said would rather see their salary or retirement benefit reduced instead of health benefits if their employer needed to reduce total compensation.

"The fact that so many employees are opposed to giving up any aspect of their health benefits, even in return for an improvement in other benefits, speaks volumes as to just how important they are from a worker and employer perspective," says Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health. "As the labor market tightens, employers will need to place an increased emphasis on their health benefits if they want to be able to compete for talented workers."