Obamacare and the effects on "Big" Companies

As those that read my blog know that I think very poorly of the "Affordable Care Act" A.K.A. Obamacare, I think it is an attempt to control the population not to provide superior coverage or health benefits.  What I mean by "control"?   That is easy, you always hear the talk around election time especially from the AARP and other groups that seem to beholding to the democrats, they go and scare the crap out of the older people with the often used phrase" If you vote for the republicans, they will cut off your social security and your medicare and push you off the cliff".  And it works, it gets the blue hair crowd worked up and they vote as a block and they have the highest voting percentage of any age group.  Now we have the democrats trying to push amnesty through to get 11 million more democrat voters " if you vote republican, they will deport you back to Mexico or what 3rd world craphole you came from" and it will scare the crap out of the Hispanic crowd..Boom...More votes locked into the democrat machine.  Now we have Obamacare, this will be used to control the rest of the population.  " You are a member of the Tea party?  Well it seems that your kids/spouse/ whomever care is delayed...again.   Sorry about that.  Now if you just were not so critical of the President and policies you understand"?   And guess what...how many people would be silenced.  It would be a socialist utopia with no dissent.  Now they want to help impliment Obamacare though the IRS

You know the IRS...the same organization that goes out of the way to target groups with constitutional names, they go out of their way to harass them and audit them.  Now they want to hire 16,000 more agents to enforce the diktats of Obamacare, you know the only agency in the United States that if you go before them, you are immediately presumed "Guilty" unless you can prove them wrong.  So we will have 16,000 more agents looking for things to justify their jobs.  Nothing like scaring the crap out of people...Just mention the IRS, the only organization that will seize your house, bank accounts and everything you got with out a hearing and you have to go to THEIR court and try to get your stuff back.
    Now this brings me back to Obamacare, I and many people have heard that Obamacare you can keep your present insurance and it will not affect you one bit.  Well those that read my blog on a regular basis know that I work for one of those big companies and it will affect us a lot.  We had our vice president of Human resources send a letter to Ms Tavenner one of the people that works with the dept of health and human services, who reports to Secretary Sebelius who reports to President Obama.

  Here is an excerpt of that letter:
     "As you know, I and the other large employer representatives in attendance

i did not agree with your initial assessment that the ACA means “business as usual” for large

employers. Since you committed to share our concerns with Secretary Sebelius and the President, I thought

it might be helpful to summarize the major points for you here.

   

As you heard from many of us, the ACA will result in increasing costs, for both companies and our

employees, and will also reduce the benefits provided. Here are some of the major drivers of these effects:

The Reinsurance Fee

–

The ACA requires large employers to pay an annual fee of $63 per covered

participant in 2014. For XXXXX roughly 160,000 enrolled active and retired employees and their

family members, this represents more than $10 million added to the cost of providing

health care

next year. As we discussed, this fee, which is meant to help stabilize the state exchanges as they get

started, provides absolutely zero direct benefit to our participants. It is, essentially, a direct subsidy

from us and our employees to those who participate in the exchanges

Covering Children Until Age 26

–

There is no doubt that this has been a popular provision

nationwide and at XXXXX we have seen more than 8,000 children added to our rolls resulting in a

permanent increase in our overall

 costs of about $14 million per year. We are required to charge the

same for these children as we do for any other children covered by our plan. However, our

experience shows that, on average, these children are consuming considerably more health care

than

other children we cover. In essence, we are experiencing adverse selection in this population and

that is having an impact on the costs that we and our employees pay for coverage.

The Individual Mandate

–

As you know, in 2014, the individual mandate

under the ACA kicks in and

those not currently covered under any plan must enroll or pay a penalty to the Federal government.

Our actuaries have estimated how many of those who currently opt out of our coverage will now opt

in. Their estimates are that this

 requirement will add another $14 Million in costs to our plan each

year, net of the premiums paid by these individuals.

Thirty Hour Rule

As you heard at the meeting, many employers are planning to reduce employees’

hours to less than thirty per week

in order to avoid the requirements to either provide health coverage

or pay fees for those employees. XXXXX is not one of those employers, and we do not plan to force

employees to work fewer hours as a result of the ACA. For others, however, this represents one of

the negative unintended consequences of the ACA and we support efforts to raise the limit to forty

hours per week rather than thirty.

Pay or Play Penalties

–

The group health coverage XXXXX provides to its full time employees more

than meets the

definition of “affordable coverage” as defined by the ACA. However, the proposed

regulations that implement this provision of the law are very complex and, when finalized, may 

unnecessarily impose HR information systems changes that will be costly to build and maintain.  In

addition, there are many unsettled principles surrounding this provision of ACA and based on the

fact that it is already June, employers will not have time to react should final regulations be issued

this year. This puts employers at

risk of being assessed these penalties in innocent situations (such as

when employees take voluntary leaves of absences) and imposes additional costs, even in those

situations where the vast majority of employees are offered affordable, comprehensive coverage.

Cadillac Tax

–

Recent data released is evidence of what you heard in the meeting

employers are

reducing or eliminating rich plan designs in order to ensure they do not pay the tax, since doing so

would represent a significant waste of money. At XXXXX, we did that last year as we eliminated one of

the plan designs available to our pilot group specifically because it would have risked being subject

to the Cadillac tax. However, keep in mind that, eventually, it is not just the “rich” plan designs that

will be affected. Essentially, the Cadillac tax level represents a “ceiling” on the value of benefits

provided in health plans. However, that ceiling rises each year only at the rate of the consumer price

index (CPI). On the other hand, medical inflation is rising at a higher rate than CPI.  The way the

math works, given enough years, all plans will eventually risk being subject to the Cadillac Tax and

as they do, the natural reaction will be to continually reduce benefits provided in order to avoid the tax.

At XXXXX we are doing a lot of positive things to provide a platform for our employees to live healthier, more

productive lives. We offer free preventive coverage, we offer telemedicine services, a concierge nurse line

and great tools that provide

vital data (such as it exists) on quality and cost among the provider community.

We provide incentives that reward employees for doing the things that help lead to better long

term health.

But make no mistake

the costs imposed on XXXXX and our employees are very real and they are escalating.

The costs mentioned above, when combined with normal medical inflation and the end of the ERRP program

mean that the cost of providing health care to our employees will increase by nearly $100,000,000 next year.

XXXXX will have to absorb the vast majority of that increase in costs so that we continue providing a high

value, high quality health plan, but some of it will have to be shared with our employees as well. And of

course, the balance that the company pays simply means less left over for other investments that make our business stronger.

In closing, the ACA is anything but business as usual for large employers like XXXXX. It represents real and

significant changes that provide real challenges for both our

company and our employees. Thank you for the

opportunity to provide this input. If I can be of assistance in any other way, please do not hesitate to contact

me.

Respectfully,

   "Name signed here"

     My employer.is letting us employees know that major change is coming to our insurance, it will be much more expensive and less coverage and what we will need to expect as Obamacare gets up and running.