Does it matter? Are business owners off the hook? What's next for the ACA?
From Janet L. Mlynar, CFP,MBA, LPL Registered Principal, BENEFITS PLUS, INC.
On December 24, 2009, remember when Nancy Pelosi stated on national television, "We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it." Well, she wasn't kidding.
Being in the healthcare business for 32 years, we knew the impact this law could have on our clients. We felt the necessity to read the bill "so we could find out what is in it." We read it (2400 pages) and reviewed most of the 40,000 pages that have followed. Our conclusion: It will change healthcare as we know it.
DELAYING THE "EMPLOYER MANDATE," WILL IT MATTER?
Probable not. This is a delay, not a repeal. The next presidential election is not until 2016. Short of an uproar created by employe rs perhaps emboldened by the delay, we are not sure what can be do·ne to ·stop ·it, change it, or fix it.
WHAT IS THE "EMPLOYER MANDATE?"
In the law, technically, no employer is mandated to cover any worker. Instead, the law says that employers with 50 full-time workers will face a penalty if they do not provide health insurance.
WHY THE FOCUS ON THE EMPLOYER?
Without some kind of real employer responsibility, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that a large number of employers providing health insurance would stop doing so once the health insurance exchanges opened and the subsidies kicked in on 1/1/2014.
WHY DID THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT REQUEST THE DELAY?
To give both the Administration and employers more time to prepare for this new obligation. The law is. complex and there ·are many implementation challenges, including the employer ma11date .
Significant Dates:
February, 2009: Shortly after his inauguration President Obama announces that he will begin working with Congress on a plan for health care reform, making good on a campaign promise of universal healthcare.
December 24, 2009: The health reform bill, after much debate, was passed by a vote of 60-39, with all Democrats and two independents voting for, and all Republicans voting against, except one who did not vote. Losing the majority when Scott Brown, Republican from Massachusetts, took Ted Kennedy's senate seat, Democrats turned to a little known procedural tactic called "reconciliation."
March 23, 2010: President Obama signed the original bill, ACA, into law. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, it represents the most significant government expansion and regulatory overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system since the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.
August 12, 2011: The State of California receives $39 million (Level 1 Exchange Establishment grant) from the Federal Government to establish their exchange. California is opening their exchange on 10/1/2013.
November 6, 2011: President Obama was re-elected, removing the last political fatal threat to full implementation of the ACA .
June 28, 2012: The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of most of the ACA.
"Roberts Rule" giving individual states the option to expand Medicaid.
July 2, 2013: The Treasury Department (IRS) announces that it will delay the enforcement of the "Employer Mandate" until 2015.
Significant Facts:
2400 Approx. number of pages in the original bill signed by President Obama on 3/28/2010.
40,000 Estimated number of additional pages of regulations to the ACA as of 7/1/2013.
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Janet L. Mlynar, CFP, MBA, LPL Registered Principal, BENEFITS PLUS, INC SM, can be reached at 1157 Division Street, Napa, California 94559. Phone: 707-255-9900 or 800-325-1333. Fax 800-350-1542. WWW.BENEFITSPLUS.INFO