kbp

May 28 2014, 11:41 PM

Mason

May 28 2014, 09:31 PM

This was passed in early 2009!

He's making it up as he goes along...
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http://capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org/index.php/2014/05/can-employers-dump-workers-to-health-exchange-yes-for-a-price/


.

It's his living law!

Quote:

 

http://dailycaller.com/2014/05/28/report-employee-health-care-premiums-boosted-under-obamacare/?advD=1248,153371?print=1?print=1

Report: Employee Health Care Premiums Boosted Under Obamacare

American workers are feeling the brunt of higher premiums and out-of-pocket costs from their employer health plans, according to a new report released Wednesday.

In the first year that the health care law’s regulations and coverage are active, 86 percent of workers expect their personal medical costs to increase, according to the annual Aflac WorkForces Report, which has studied the landscape of employer-provided health coverage since Obamacare was passed in 2010.

That’s in line with employers’ projections as well. In 2013, 56 percent of companies increased their employees’ share of health care premiums or co-pays; another 59 percent plan to do the same by the end of 2014.

Employers and insurance companies have both markedly shifted towards a new model where consumers pay higher out-of-pocket costs every time they actually use health services — in addition to rising premiums.

A vast majority of workers still feel insecure about medical costs, however: The report found that the average American worker is just one serious medical event away from financial hardship.

Sixty-six percent fear that they wouldn’t be able to handle the large costs of a serious illness or injury. When it comes to paying unexpected out-of-pocket medical costs, 49 percent of workers have less than $1,000 on hand; 27 percent of employees have less than $500.

Employees’ consistent worries about handling health-care costs were supposed to be alleviated by the health-care law, but even insured employees remain largely unprepared to deal with typical out-of-pocket costs.

The threat of bankruptcy due to unexpected medical costs was a key talking point for the Affordable Care Act’s supporters. Obamacare limits insurers’ ability to cap annual and lifetime payments for essential health benefits, but with many workers unable to pay over $1,000 out-of-pocket, financial hardships will arise for more routine health services.

While workers continue to struggle with health-care costs, employers are scrambling to lower their own ballooning health-care costs, naming it their top business concern. In 2013, 21 percent of companies surveyed converted full-time workers to part time, avoiding health-insurance costs; and 22 percent eliminated or reduced offered employee benefits.

Even on top of rising premiums, the cost outlook for employer-provided health insurance, which cover approximately 157 million Americans, remains bleak. Already, a long list of taxes will be passed from insurers to employers to workers, and more are due to hit in the next several years.

The employer mandate to provide health insurance will hit all companies that don’t provide health plans in 2016; and in 2018, the “Cadillac tax,” a 40 percent excise tax on high-cost health plans, will hit employers as well.

Concerned

May 30 2014, 03:48 PM

Medicare coverage ban on sex-change surgery lifted

http://news.yahoo.com/medicare-coverage-ban-sex-change-surgery-lifted-165659894.html

wingedwheel

May 30 2014, 03:55 PM

Concerned

May 30 2014, 03:48 PM

Medicare coverage ban on sex-change surgery lifted

http://news.yahoo.com/medicare-coverage-ban-sex-change-surgery-lifted-165659894.html

I don't even know what to say.

chatham

May 30 2014, 06:00 PM

Young(er) people can get medicare, I beleive, if they have a disability. Maybe being transgender is a disability.

Baldo

May 31 2014, 10:10 AM

So it makes me wonder if the ADA law passed by Congress says it excluded, how can bureaucrats say it is now covered?

Quote:

 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/31/analysts-predict-most-employer-provided-insurance-will-disappear-as-obamacare/

Analysts predict most employer-provided insurance will disappear as ObamaCare takes hold

Across the political spectrum, analysts now say that 80 to 90 percent of employer-provided insurance, the mainstay of American health coverage for decades, will disappear as ObamaCare takes hold.

The research firm S&P IQ predicts less than 10 percent of those who get insurance at work will still get it there ten years from now.

"The companies will really be hard pressed to justify why they would continue to have to spend the kind of money they spend by offering insurance through corporate plans when there's an alternative that's subsidized by the government" said Michael Thompson, head of S&P IQ.

Even a former adviser to President Obama, Zeke Emanuel, predicted less than 20 percent who now get employer-provided insurance will still get it ten years from now. He wrote in his book "Reinventing American Health Care" that "By 2025 few private-sector employers will still be providing health insurance."

Emanuel told Fox News, “it's going to actually be better for people. They'll have more choice, most people who work for an employer and get their coverage through an employer do not have choice."

The reason analysts see this historic change in health coverage is because the tax penalty for not offering insurance -- $2,000 per worker-- is so much less than the cost of providing it.

John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis explained that, "for a worker making only $15 an hour, typical employer coverage for a family costs $15,000 or $16,000, that's more than half of that worker’s annual wage."

Thompson said, "it would be too compelling for companies to not put their employees into exchanges. It's just way too compelling."

To make it compelling to workers, as well, employers can bump up workers' pay to help cover the deductibles and other costs in ObamaCare.

Former Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Holtz-Eakin said,"you could give them more, so after taxes they end up with the same and the math says you still come out ahead. And so employers have been doing this math ever since the law passed. I expect for them to get to the exits pretty quickly."

Employers would also get rid of the headache and uncertainty of providing insurance, he noted. "Most people are not in the health insurance business they are manufacturers, exporters, they are service providers. And they would rather stick to that than worry about health insurance."

Goodman added, "they don't want to be in the health insurance business. So if they see a low cost way to get out of it, many will jump at the chance."

So employers can offer more pay to workers, pay the fine and still come out ahead, while workers would still get health care.

The only losers in all this would be the federal deficit and taxpayers, since many workers going into ObamaCare would qualify for subsidies, driving up the cost.