Insurers Warn of Obamacare-Induced Sticker Shock

Health Actuaries: Obamacare Rates Expected To Soar

Few aspects of the Affordable Care Act are more critical to its success than affordability, but in recent weeks experts have predicted costs for some health plans could soar next year.

Health law supporters are pushing back noting close ties between the actuaries making the forecasts and an insurance industry that has been complaining about taxes and other factors it says will lead to rate shock for consumers. The laws supporters ignore one elementary and simple fact. When costs rise for insurers those costs are passed along to consumers in the form of higher premiums. Read More

There is some good news for Electrical Contractors and some Businesses

Electrical Contractors and Businesses that are partnered with them have an opportunity for significant savings on their health care benefits. NJECPAC Partner Association New Jersey IEC has joined Association Master Trust (AMT). AMT is an unique not for profit multi-Association Health Benefits Plan offering a multitude of Medical and Dental plans at group rates. 

Even one person Companies that would not otherwise qualify for group rates under NJ Law are eligible for Group Rates on their Health Insurance through AMT. AMT utilizes the Blue Cross Provider Network and includes 'Blue Card' which includes the Blue Cross World Wide Network of Service Providers. 

AMT for Electrical Contractors is available exclusively through New Jersey IEC. Participants in AMT have seen Group plan savings in the hundreds and even thousands of dollars.  

For more information visit www.NJ-IEC.org or contact New Jersey Independent Electrical Contractors by phone at (973) 467-0027, fax: (973) 467-4066, email: executivedirector@nj-iec.org

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Study Confirms Most Employers Plan To Keep Health Coverage

The latest health care survey conducted by consulting firm Towers Watson has found that the vast majority (88%) of the 440 midsize to large companies surveyed claimed that they had no plans to drop health care coverage in the near future. Among other findings, the Towers Watson survey noted that employers did plan to take a number of steps to control projected health care cost increases and to avoid having to pay the 40% excise tax on high cost (“Cadillac”) health plans in 2018. A majority of employers (58%) expect that they will trigger the excise tax in 2018 if they do not make changes to their current benefit strategy. As a result, 83% of employers are planning to take steps to control their costs to avoid the tax.

Notable survey results include the following:

• The number of employers stating that they would continue providing health coverage for their active employees increased 17% over last year’s survey.
• More than three-quarters (77%) view health care benefits as core to their employee value proposition over the next several years, and more than one-third of companies will examine their health care benefits in a total rewards framework by 2013.
• The cost of providing health coverage is projected to increase by 5.3% in 2013, down from the 5.9% projected increase for 2012.
• The total cost of providing coverage is estimated to be $11,507 per employee in 2013.
• To control costs, responding employers claimed that they will either adopt or continue to provide account-based health plans (ABHPs), which are plans “with a deductible offered together with a personal account (health savings account or health reimbursement arrangement) that can be used to pay a portion of the medical expense not paid by the plan.” According to the survey, by the year 2015, 80% of employers intend to offer an ABHP, up from 61% in 2013.
• Companies are also considering other steps to reduce costs, including changing plan options (63%), significantly reducing subsidization of coverage for spouses and dependents (38%), and using spousal waivers or surcharges (29%). Additionally, 13% plan to increase their employees’ share of health care premiums in 2013 by five percentage points or more, while 42% plan to increase employees’ share by one to five percentage points.
• Seventeen percent of responding employers claimed that they plan to offer telemedicine services by the year 2013, with another 27% considering doing so by 2014 or 2015.
• A greater number of employers responded this year that they were “very likely” to discontinue sponsoring health plans for retirees in 2014 or 2015. Many employers are also considering reducing the subsidization of coverage for their employees’ spouses and dependents, and passing along a greater percentage of the increased costs to their employees.

A recently-released report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined a number of studies on the ACA’s impact on employer-sponsored coverage. Read More Here

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Don’t Play & Pay: Navigating Employer Health Coverage Mandate

On Friday, August 31, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued guidance regarding the application of the employer-sponsored health coverage mandate. Employers need to begin planning for these rules as soon as possible. While the employer coverage mandate itself does not apply until 2014, it may be necessary to begin tracking the hours of employees as soon as this October in order to facilitate compliance.

The Play or Pay Rules

The employer-sponsored health coverage mandate is designed to require non exempt employers to either provide employees with adequate and affordable health coverage or to require those employers to pay certain penalties for their failure to do so. Specifically, penalties are triggered if:

• (1) An employer fails to offer all of its “full-time employees” the opportunity to enroll in an employer-sponsored health plan; or (2) the employer-sponsored health plan offered to “full-time employees” is “unaffordable” or fails to provide “minimum value”; AND
• Any employee impacted by such a failure purchases individual health insurance coverage through a State-based or Federally-facilitated Exchange and qualifies for a subsidy.

Failure to Provide Coverage

Employers who fail to provide coverage to all of their “full-time employees” are subject to a penalty of $2,000 per year (assessed on a monthly basis) multiplied by their total “full- time employee” count. For employers that provide health coverage, the challenge with respect to this rule is identifying all of their “full-time employees”—and making sure all such employees are offered coverage. In the event that even one “full-time employee” is not offered coverage and subsequently attains subsidized coverage through an exchange, the penalty is applied to all “full-time employees.” Thus, with respect to any employees who do receive employer-sponsored coverage, the employer could end up “playing” and “paying.” Read More Here

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Small Business Waiting on Mandates in Obama's Health Care Law

Faced with higher premiums again in the year ahead, many business owners have found themselves in a holding pattern over health care. 

They're increasingly concerned about the rising costs of health care plans and the impact that health care reform will have on their businesses, and unsure whether they should make any changes in their current plan until they have a better understanding of the law and their options. More

With the constitutionality of H.R.3590 The Affordable Care Act scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court, small-business owners are taking a wait-and-see approach to changing their health plans and or plan benefits. Rising premium costs have caused small businesses to begin to choose lesser plans with reduced benefits and or increase the percentage that their employees must contribute to their health care plan in 2012. More

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Last week was the anniversary of the signing of the President’s takeover of America’s health care system. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or as it is more commonly known "Obamacare", was supposed to reduce costs, provide better access to health care, and create jobs. The President even said "if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan."

As NJECPAC had warned, Just one year after being signed into law, the cost of Obamacare has soared.  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) now estimates that the cost of Obamacare has increased by over $500 billion, added to the original $938 billion, brings the price tag to a staggering $1.445 trillion.

The President also promised that once fully implemented the cost of the overhaul would cost no more than $65 billion a year. Now the cost is estimated to be three times that. the cost of Medicare is expected to double virtually bankrupting the systems trust fund by 2020.  

One year later, the law is actually stifling job creation, increasing the costs for all taxpayers, businesses, and states, has placed massive new paperwork requirements on Businesses and there have been over 1040 special waivers representing 2.6 million people just to allow them to keep their current plans.”

Now dont get us wrong, there are what can be viewed as a few good provisions contained in the law. However, exactly as the NJECPAC Board of Governors warned our Congressmen and Senators when they met with them in Washington, every one of those provisions increases costs to Employers, their Employees and Taxpayers. Which only serves to prove that there is no such thing as a free ride.

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Higher Paid Workers Begin To Bear Higher Health Insurance Costs

More employers are requiring higher-paid employees to make greater premium contributions toward their health care plans therby tying employee contribution to wages.

With health care costs increasing more and more, an increasing number of employers are adopting a system to pass on the bulk of those costs to workers in higher salary brackets and offering some relief to workers who make less money.

Employees continue to see what they pay toward health care go up as companies ask them to contribute more to premiums and deductibles. But now, as people enroll in health plans for the coming year, the sticker shock is more jolting than ever because so many companies are passing on to their workers most, if not all, of the higher costs.

A worker’s share of a family policy is approaching $4,000 a year on average, and is most certainly going to keep rising through the next few years. For lower-salaried workers, those costs have only compounded their struggle in a brutal economy.
Read More From The NY Times

So Much For Obama Care Reducing Costs !!!!