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Category: Steven G. Cosby, MHSA

What Would it Cost to ‘Fix’ Obamacare?

You can’t find an Obamacare supporter anywhere who thinks that the massive health-care law is problem-free. Any major law regularly gets fixed through the legislative process after it’s passed, but the politics surrounding the Affordable Care Act has pretty much made this impossible so far.

Democrats on the campaign trail have often talked about the need for fixing and improving Obamacare without really getting into specifics. That prompted conservative policy expert Chris Jacobs of America Next to recently wonder what these fixes would cost and how they’d be paid for.

So I thought it would be a fun and useful exercise to round up Obamacare “fixes” that have garnered the broadest support and look at what they could potentially cost. How to pay for them — well, that’s another story.

Read full article here.

Contact Steven Cosby with questions or to request more information and to schedule a healthcare plan evaluation, savings analysis or group plan solution for your company.

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What is The Employer Mandate?

As part of the health care reform law, beginning in 2015, certain employers with 50 or more “full-time equivalent” employees (FTEs) who do not provide affordable health care coverage may be assessed a penalty if at least one full-time employee qualifies for a premium tax credit and uses it to purchase coverage in the health insurance exchange. Additionally, the law requires employers to provide prescribed health coverage while, at the same time, penalizing some employers who may fail to offer what is defined by the law as “affordable” coverage.

The employer mandate provides two deterrents for business growth. First, the employer mandate discourages small businesses from hiring additional employees because only businesses with 50 or more FTEs may be penalized for not offering the prescribed coverage. Second, the employer mandate penalty, once triggered, is calculated based on the number of full-time employees.

Further, for the first time, this new law defines a full-time employee as someone who works 30 hours per week, averaged over the course of a month, rather than the traditional definition of 40 hours per week.

Employers want to offer health insurance to their employees and want to continue to grow and create jobs. However, the employer mandate threatens to penalize businesses for failing to offer affordable coverage, when—more than ever—people need jobs and employers need help growing and should be encouraged to hire more employees. This law does the opposite at a dangerous time.

Source: U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Download a one sheet on how the “Employer Mandate Works.”

Contact Steven Cosby with questions or to request more information and to schedule a healthcare plan evaluation, savings analysis or group plan solution for your company.

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Obamacare’s Employer Mandate is Under Attack From Both Sides. Will it Survive?

Critics of the health care law, including many business owners, have long bemoaned a provision that requires employers to provide health coverage to their workers.
Now, some of the law’s supporters are starting to call for the rule’s elimination, too.
“Repeal of the employer mandate might, in fact, not be such a bad idea,” Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University and vocal supporter of the Affordable Care Act, wrote this week in a column for Health Affairs. In simplest terms, the employer mandate, as it has become known, requires firms with at least 50 workers to offer affordable, comprehensive health insurance to every full-time worker. If they don’t, they face fines of up to $2,000 per employee.

Read full article here.

Contact Steven Cosby with questions or to request more information and to schedule a healthcare plan evaluation, savings analysis or group plan solution for your company.
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Virginia Governor to Bypass Lawmakers, Expand Medicaid

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe vowed Friday to bypass the General Assembly and expand Medicaid eligibility for about 400,000 low-income residents on his own.

The Democratic governor said his staff has begun working with the federal government, insurance plans, hospitals and other groups on how to expand health care coverage for the poor, absent approval from state lawmakers.

“Let me be crystal clear, I am moving forward to get health care for Virginian citizens,” McAuliffe said at news conference at the capitol.

McAuliffe had tried unsuccessfully for months to persuade Republican state lawmakers to approve some form of Medicaid expansion. But he said Friday he had “no illusions” that Republicans were interested in compromising on the issue.

“They have turned their back, time and time again,” McAuliffe said.

He said he’s ordered Secretary of Health and Human Resources Dr. William A. Hazel Jr. to present a plan no later than Sept. 1 on “how we move forward with health care in the face of the demagoguery, the lies, the fear and the cowardice that have gripped this debate for far too long.”

McAuliffe said he believes there are number of ways he can legally expand Medicaid without the General Assembly’s approval. But leaders of the GOP-controlled House responded Friday that McAuliffe’s does not have that power and they are prepared to fight.

Read full report here.

Contact Steven Cosby with questions or to request more information and to schedule a healthcare plan evaluation, savings analysis or group plan solution for your company.

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