Affordable Health Care Act
Morning all. We are fulltimers and rarely stay in one state more than 6 months in the winter and 1 month in the summer. We have our domicile at South Dakota. We do not qualify for medicare or medic...
Forum Discussion
The news has finally broken that millions of people are having their current policies terminated, mine included. Yes, they don't meet the ACA requirements but that is usually because of the many special interest clauses in the ACA that policies issued in the past have never covered. My existing policy didn't cover birth control, hence, not an ACA compliant policy. This gives my insurance company the loophole to eliminate my plan and move everyone who was in it to more expensive plans.
There will be many people who benefit from ACA, without a doubt. Those who couldn't get coverage because of existing conditions, those who couldn't afford insurance without a subsidy etc. But make no mistake, it is like every other government entitlement program. For everyone who finds it is a good deal, there will be someone who gets a bad deal because they have to pay for the other person's good deal. The real mess is going to come when businesses make the rational decision to pay the mandate penalty and drop insurance. Employer paid policies often cost in excess of $1000 per covered employee per month. On top of that the company has the expense of administering signup, renewal, and the assorted HR expenses of having a plan. A business could easily decide to drop coverage, pay the $1250 per employee penalty and toss an extra $500 a month into the employee's compensation claiming it makes up for eliminating the insurance benefit and still come out $6000 a year per employee ahead. For a business with 1000 employees that would be a savings of $6,000,000 a year, not exactly chump change.
That employee will then find that the $500 a month salary boost will leave them $100s short when buying a policy that ends up covering much less than what they had before. The employer will say "The ACA is good for you, just read the proponents lips, they never lie. We are doing this for your benefit." This is why the employer mandate was delayed, they had to move this debacle past the 2014 election cycle. In 2015 I would expect the fireworks to really fly.
There will be many people who benefit from ACA, without a doubt. Those who couldn't get coverage because of existing conditions, those who couldn't afford insurance without a subsidy etc. But make no mistake, it is like every other government entitlement program. For everyone who finds it is a good deal, there will be someone who gets a bad deal because they have to pay for the other person's good deal. The real mess is going to come when businesses make the rational decision to pay the mandate penalty and drop insurance. Employer paid policies often cost in excess of $1000 per covered employee per month. On top of that the company has the expense of administering signup, renewal, and the assorted HR expenses of having a plan. A business could easily decide to drop coverage, pay the $1250 per employee penalty and toss an extra $500 a month into the employee's compensation claiming it makes up for eliminating the insurance benefit and still come out $6000 a year per employee ahead. For a business with 1000 employees that would be a savings of $6,000,000 a year, not exactly chump change.
That employee will then find that the $500 a month salary boost will leave them $100s short when buying a policy that ends up covering much less than what they had before. The employer will say "The ACA is good for you, just read the proponents lips, they never lie. We are doing this for your benefit." This is why the employer mandate was delayed, they had to move this debacle past the 2014 election cycle. In 2015 I would expect the fireworks to really fly.
