They cheered its passage. They cheered when it was upheld.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

eridani (38,419 posts)

Employers Eye Bare-Bones Health Plans Under New Law

Employers Eye Bare-Bones Health Plans Under New Law

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324787004578493274030598186.html

Employers are increasingly recognizing they may be able to avoid certain penalties under the federal health law by offering very limited plans that can lack key benefits such as hospital coverage.

Benefits advisers and insurance brokers--bucking a commonly held expectation that the law would broadly enrich benefits--are pitching these low-benefit plans around the country. They cover minimal requirements such as preventive services, but often little more. Some of the plans wouldn't cover surgery, X-rays or prenatal care at all.

Federal officials say this type of plan, in concept, would appear to qualify as acceptable minimum coverage under the law, and let most employers avoid an across-the-workforce $2,000-per-worker penalty for firms that offer nothing.

The idea that such plans would be allowable under the law has emerged only recently. Some benefits advisers still feel they could face regulatory uncertainty. The law requires employers with 50 or more workers to offer coverage to their workers or pay a penalty. Many employers and benefits experts have understood the rules to require robust insurance, covering a list of "essential" benefits such as mental-health services and a high percentage of workers' overall costs.

But a close reading of the rules makes it clear that those mandates affect only plans sponsored by insurers that are sold to small businesses and individuals, federal officials confirm.

<snip>

Administration officials confirmed in interviews that the skinny plans, in concept, would be sufficient to avoid the across-the-workforce penalty. Several expressed surprise that employers would consider the approach.

Comment by Don McCanne of PNHP:  Imagine health insurance not covering hospitalizations nor surgery. Yet this is still possible because the Affordable Care Act applies the essential health benefit requirement only to plans for small businesses and individuals and not to larger employers.

This has opened up the opportunity for a conspiracy between larger employers who could care less whether or not their employees have health insurance and private insurers who are quite willing to sell these almost worthless bare-bones products as long as there is a profitable market for them.

The solution is obvious. Cover all care that people need, and then provide that coverage to everyone, automatically. Maybe these uncaring employers might not like that, but when the taxes to pay for an equitable system are obligatory, they would get used to the idea of their employees being able to obtain health care when they need it. Not such a bad idea after all, especially when their competitors are treated the same.

KG (23,281 posts)

1. ACA: cluster****.

Puzzledtraveller (1,878 posts)

11. It's praised by many still
 
Me not being one of them and I'm a medicaid worker.

Kolesar (29,334 posts)

35. ACA will enable me to retire early without worrying about "medical coverage"
 
I also expect to get a tax credit of $6000/year or more for my medical insurance premium.

I will be thinking about this place a lot while I am out skiing.

And that's all that really matters, isn't it?

Ilsa (31,706 posts)

3. This part is scary:

Administration officials confirmed in interviews that the skinny plans, in concept, would be sufficient to avoid the across-the-workforce penalty. Several expressed surprise that employers would consider the approach.

Really? The Admin is this naive? They really hadn't considered that employers would screw over employees to save a buck?

They're not naïve.

They just wanted the power.

**** you and your needs; they have a government to build.

Bandit (19,782 posts)

6. Still better than what the employees have now..

Egalitarian Thug (7,212 posts)

9. How? An insurance policy that doesn't pay for the insured is just extortion. n/t

Bandit (19,782 posts)

14. It is extortion if they make employees pay the bill

The way it is supposed to work is the employer has to provide insurance for their employees....It should seem obvious that the employer will choose the cheapest form they can legally get...however the employee will still come out with something, which is more than they have now.

It's extortion to pay your bill for the services you use?

It's extortion to pay your own car repair bills?

It's extortion to buy your own groceries?

You people do not deserve to live.

WhoreSense then gets slapped around for popping in with the usual FaggitProp. It's too long so I won't bother posting it but basically it comes down to: xtian fundie Hobby Lobby must pay for birth control so the world is better now.

http://election.democraticunderground.com/10022883398

[FlaGator]

I am trying to figure out what moral concept requires employers to provide health care for their workers. As I see in, the only thing that a business is morally obligated to do for a worker is to pay him an amount equal to the work that was performed and to provide medical coverage should the employee become hurt while working. Any thing beyond this is something that the business chooses to do for reasons that it deems important.

Progressives have an unusual look at what is morally or ethically right. They see happiness as a right but the Declaration of Independence correctly stated that it is the pursuit of happiness we are entitled to. Whether a person reaches that goal is entirely up to the pursuer and his or her goals. Progressives believe that they have a right to food, clothing, shelter, a living wage, healthcare, transportation, communication and leisure time but it seems to me that these things actually fall under the heading of the pursuit of happiness.

I think that proglodytes (I love that name) have confused the process of pursuit with the concept of sitting back and waiting for the government to give it to them. To most progressives the pursuit ends at the voting booth and as a reward for electing the right people they get everything that makes them happy.

[miskie]

Don't blame us, primitives.

'Rethugs' were locked out of Obamacare's design and implementation. None voted in favor.

This plan and all its pitfalls are all on you.

[Celtic Rose]

Shocking that we could find out bad news about a law that was rushed through congress without people actually reading it 

[jukin]

So 3+ years later we are still finding out what was in the bill.

The only silver lining to the cACA is that lowlifes like the DUches will be hit hardest.

[thundley4]

Kolesar (29,334 posts)

35. ACA will enable me to retire early without worrying about "medical coverage"
 
I also expect to get a tax credit of $6000/year or more for my medical insurance premium.

I will be thinking about this place a lot while I am out skiing.

I got mine, **** everyone else.  Typical DUmmie attitude.

[BlueStateSaint]

I got mine, **** everyone else.  Typical DUmmie attitude.

And it's the 'tude they ascribe to us. Ain't it interesting?

[NHSparky]

So 3+ years later we are still finding out what was in the bill.

The only silver lining to the cACA is that lowlifes like the DUches will be hit hardest.

Not hardly--even middle-class schlubs like me are gonna get hammered.  We're already looking at our coverage going from so-so (Cigna) to a plan that is about six steps below what we're paying for now--and that means NO prescription coverage, co-pays out the ass, and deductibles per year in the $10K or more range.

Oh, and they're already telling us that going to this plan is STILL going to result in a 30-40 percent increase in premiums and they'll be DOUBLING our contribution percentage, so we're basically looking at having our insurance deduction for this K-Mart POS plan is going to be nearly triple what we're having taken out now.

Couple that with the fact we're looking at NO payraise anytime soon, and yeah, keep reminding me how good this deal is.  I keep forgetting.

[Dori]

So 3+ years later we are still finding out what was in the bill.

That's because the last 20,000+ pages were written after they passed the bill......and they still aren't finished writing it.

This is going to turn out just like the "never ending" IRS tax codes.

[diesel driver]

Shocking that we could find out bad news about a law that was rushed through congress without people actually reading it 

"Popeye" Pelosi "warned" us about the ACA back in 2009.

"You have to pass it to find out what's in it."

Remember?      

Bottom line, you can gold plate and polish a turd, but it's still a turd.

[jukin]

Almost forgot that medicare will be nicked by at least a trillion dollars for the cACA bill.

Its a good thing that the democrat party members in good standing are all about the poor and middle income Americans, could you imagine if they are not?

[Evil_Conservative]

Oh DUmmies,  it's not that bad.  The two democrats on my team at work still say they "can't wait for their free healthcare when Obamacare goes into effect."

[Karin]

Do you ever say anything to them, EC, or just look at them? 

[NHSparky]

Oh DUmmies,  it's not that bad.  The two democrats on my team at work still say they "can't wait for their free healthcare when Obamacare goes into effect."

Show them the PJ O'Rourke line: "If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free."

Oh, and the CACA (I love that) was NEVER about making UNIVERSAL "free" health care.  It was covering those too lazy or too piss-poor at managing their finances to do it on their own--at our expense, of course.

[Wineslob]

Do you ever say anything to them, EC, or just look at beat them about the head and neck? 

FIFY

[Evil_Conservative]

Do you ever say anything to them, EC, or just look at them? 

I give up.  If you tell them the truth, they look at you like you are speaking a foreign language.  I'm just going to let them find out the hard way on January 1st, 2014.  lol