Why Obama MUST Delay the Employer Mandate

[McCamy Taylor]

The IRS ruled that the health insurance that employers offer their employees must cost no more than 9.5% of the employees salary. There is no cap to how much the employer can charge for health insurance for the employee's dependents--the spouse, the children. Employees are a good insurance risk. They are healthy enough to work. Family members may not be so healthy.

So, what happens if you work in a low wage job, have two kids and a wife who does not work and your employer offers you insurance that will cost $2000 a year---well less than 10% of your $36,000 salary---but the insurance for your family will be $10,000 a year? You will have two choices. Pay the $10,000 or don't---and pay a penalty for your wife and children, who will be uninsured.

What about federal subsidies to allow low income Americans to buy on the open market? Can't your wife and kids use those? Nope. If your employer offers them any insurance at any price, they lose the right to get a subsidy to help them buy their own insurance. Your family is at the mercy of your employer. You may end up with insurance for yourself and nothing for the family but a $3000 tax for not being able to afford your employee sponsored insurance.

So, yes, the employer mandate has to be put on hold, while someone talks some sense into the IRS. Otherwise, low wage workers will be penalized and uninsured.

[dkf]

1. Is there a penalty for not insuring kids? I didn't hear that.

[kenny blankenship]

19. Yes. " For the penalty calculation, children under 18 count as half a person"

"When fully phased in (2016), the penalty under ACA will be $695 per person per year up to a maximum of three times that amount ($2,085) per family or 2.5% of household income, whichever is greater."

http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/individual-mandate-penalties-are-not-too-low/

Don't worry! This is just how it begins. As soon as Democrats become embarrassed and insulted that Americans don't want their "reform", they'll start raising these penalties.

[napi21]

2. I doubt there's a separate policy for kids. You either have a policy

on you alone or you have a family policy. I seriously doubt a family policy would cost 5 time what a single policy for the same coverage would cost.

[Freddie]

7. Many employers now

Will pay the majority cost of the employees' insurance but the employee must pay full price for the dependents' share, an unfortunate growing trend. I can see people getting divorced over this one so the spouse can buy from the exchange with a subsidy.

[napi21]

13. That's the way it was when I first took a job in Tx.

Co paid for my insurance but I had to pay for my husbands (he was unemployed because of my relo to Tx). After a few months I found out that the Co. was paying the whole thing for the MALE managers! I asked about it and they started picking up my husbands portion as well. Even when I was payin g his portion, it was nowhere near the $10,000 a year that the OP mentioned.

[Demo_Chris]

3. rec. Interesting. nt

[LukeFL]

4. This is VERY BAD

And very bad for working Americans. They must cancel this part of the ACA otherwise it will be chaos

[WestStar]

5. Oh but it's been fixed, they just delayed the individual mandate reporting requirments too.

Friday night news dump.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023188947

[antigop]

6. Even With the Affordable Care Act, Health Insurance Coverage Remains Unaffordable for Many

http://truth-out.org/news/item/14019-even-with-the-affordable-care-act-health-insurance-coverage-remains-unaffordable-for-many

Any hopes that large employers would be penalized for failing to offer affordable insurance coverage to the spouses and dependent children of their employees under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) were recently dashed by a proposed interpretation of the law from the Obama Administration.

The interpretation, which was released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) late last month in the form of a proposed rule, related to the “Employer Shared Responsibility Provision” of the ACA, popularly known as the employer mandate. That provision provides that larger employers (those with more than 50 employees) offer insurance coverage not only to their employees, but to the “dependents” of those employees as well. If these employers fail to offer “affordable” coverage, they may be subject to monetary penalties.

But the IRS’s definition of dependents in the proposed rule excludes the spouses of employees, regardless of whether the spouse is employed.

[JustAnotherGen]

8. It has to be delayed then

In the meantime - change it so the family can go elsewhere on the exchanges - AND - make the purchase of Medicare an option.

[napi21]

14. Before you ask that everyone be able to buy into Medicare, you should check it out.

I'm now on Medicare, but I also have a supplemental to cover what Medicare doesn't pay. The supplemental costs $260/mo. and as you know, Medicare cost is $100+/mo as well. I still have copays of $20 at the Dr. office and covered treatments cost you 20% because Medicare only pays 80%. I also pay $30/mo. for part D prescription coverage.

I see so many people saying they want to be abler to sign up for Medicare but I tend to think they believe it's cheaper than it really is.

[JustAnotherGen]

16. Naaah

I think we could make money off of younger and healthier people that would enable us to offset costs for older Americans on fixed incomes.

I also saw my dad call it his Golden Ticket (he died August 2011) and my mom is now eligible. Make it simpler, and point blank - make it a money maker off those 50 and younger so can take all financial burden off the older and weaker.


Even if we could get to the Italian standard for our elderly it would be better. My Mother In Law just died early this morning in Cosenza (Calabria Italy). End of life for her vs. end of life for my dad cost nothing.

The younger people who are 'earners' pay more in taxes for their parents . . . while having access to the exact same health care system.

[dkf]

9. Looked it up and there is a fine to not insure kids

Under the ACA, uninsured Americans have until the beginning of 2014 to purchase insurance through health-care exchanges being set up nationwide or other venues—or face a financial penalty. That penalty is equal to $95 per adult, and $47.50 per child, up to a maximum of $285—or 1 percent of household income, whichever is greater.

Those penalties will escalate in future years.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100783056p

[bowens43]

10. more spin trying to justify another Obama lie/failure.....

[99Forever]

11. They do it every time.

SupaPrez can do no wrong.

[reformist2]

12. All I can say is, what a cluster***k. We should have gone with socialized med, or nothing at all.

[Duckwraps]

18. +1000 nt

[Demo_Chris]

15. No worries, Obama will pass another tax cut for the wealthy and make it all better. nt

[Puzzledtraveller]

17. This thing stunk from the get go and now we are seeing why

but the cheerleaders think it's the best thing since sliced bread.

[Egalitarian Thug]

20. Gee, if only someone had warned us about where this would go...