The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

This paper discusses how the ACA has impacted the employer stakeholder group. Peer-reviewed journal articles will be examined to show how employers have been affected now and into the future, along with how employees are affected as well. Many mandates and changes have influenced and impacted employers in how they handle and deliver health care coverage, as well as impacting their business as well. Many changes affect large employers the most, but small to mid-size employers are also affected as well. This paper will also discuss commonly used strategies and their risks for employers to use in order to help lessen the impact of the ACA.

When president Obama signed the Affordable Care Act in March 2010, it came with a lot of new provisions that would vary when they would come into effect. The very first provision was the “Grandfather Clause” which allowed people to keep their insurance plan before the act went into effect. As long as the employer still offered that plan the employee could still maintain it because they were grandfathered into receiving that coverage. If someone bought an insurance plan after March 2010 they would not be considered under the Grandfather Clause. Thus, these individuals would be required to get a new plan by 2014 if their plan did not meet all the criteria, they would need to get a new plan that fills all the criteria. Another major provision of the Affordable Care Act is that patients have a guaranteed issue. This means that insurance companies are unable to deny anybody health insurance based on their health or prior health. This may create a problem because the risk pool of an insurance company may not have the best people. Eventually, this could lead to the majority of the risk pool for an insurance company to have people who are at a greater risk of needing health insurance. This will make the insurance company more vulnerable and the only way that they will be able to cover the losses is by raising the premiums on everyone even though there may be some individuals that are in perfect health. The next provision that was added under the Affordable Care Act is that the

As the new healthcare law takes effect insurance premiums are expected to rise. On average for the last six years insurances premiums have gone up six percent per year. The average annual cost that employers pay to cover their employees is around $10,000 for each employee. Usually employees are responsible for 20 percent that total or $2000. At this time the new law has done

were already providing health insurance because we’re in a competitive market and that helps us to retain and recruit good employees,” the Sacramento-based small business owner said, . One benefit for small businesses are tax credits“For us it was just good business. But pretty quickly we saw that our firm could benefit from the law. What appealed to us about the ACA were the tax credits and other financial incentives” (Taylor, 3), “A tax credit is an amount of money a taxpayer is able to subtract from taxes owed to the government” (investopedia.com , 1). this is good because businesses that barely make any money don't have to pay much taxes and they can maybe get more popularity due to the money they are saving. This is one example of how the ACA helps Small Businesses since …“ObamaCare creates the Small Business Health Options Program or SHOP, a part of each State’s Health Insurance Marketplace, where small businesses with 50 full-time equivalent employees or fewer can shop for group health plans. Starting on November 15th, 2015 those with 100 full-timers or less can use the SHOP” (www.obamacarefacts.com ,2 ). Small businesses are not required to provide health insurance to their employees if they wish because “... the answer is no. Under the Affordable Care Act, businesses with fewer than 50 full-time equivalent employees are not required to provide health insurance to their employees, and those employers will not face tax penalties if they decide not to offer their employees health insurance” (resources.ehealthinsurance.com, 1).This is good that very small businesses have the freedom not to get insurance because some businesses need to save money because of the expensive previous health care. Despite it being affordable, ObamaCare has given the freedom for small businesses to not give healthcare to employees. “Since health insurance for small business isn’t mandatory under the ACA, small

Third, the ACA regulates health care coverage in the United States. According to Lussier et al. (2016), the act mandates that all employers with more than 50 employees provide their full-time employees with health care coverage or face penalties for failing to do so” (p. 494). This act specifies that if organizations choose not to provide employees with benefits, they will be forced to pay a penalty for each eligible employee. However, organizations that do offer employee health and retirement plans must meet minimum requirements and comply with ERISA (Lussier et al, 2016). Employers and employees

Under the ACA for individuals, they are able to select their health care coverage either through their employer, through the government, by finding a plan on their own, or have no insurance coverage at all and face the tax penalty, year after year that the taxpayer goes without coverage. There are actually ways that the individual can benefit from when filing their taxes. An option for selecting health care coverage is through the government’s website exchange, this is referenced to the Premium tax credit. Under this credit as defined in 26 C.F.R. § 1.36B-1 , individuals are able to select their own health care coverage with the plans being labeled as on silver, bronze, gold, or platinum plans, and gives the taxpayer a refund on the premium amount. If a taxpayer plans on selecting one of these, the government will give you a tax break if your income places you under the 400% of the poverty level (Obamacare, 2015). Under ACA, employers are now faced with a challenge of their own, if they have 50 or more employees they are now required to offer healthcare coverage to their full-time employees, and if they do not they will be faced to pay a tax penalty. With smaller employers they would be offered a tax break on offering their employees coverage through the government marketplace. Another way that the ACA changed the tax on other companies is

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), commonly called the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or colloquially Obamacare, is a federal statute signed into law on March 23 2010 (One Hundred Eleventh Congress, 2015). The Act has the unfortunate status of being the subject of of over 54 votes to either undo, amend or curtail the core provisions of the Act (O'Keefe, 2014). The global consulting group McKinsey has described the Act, along with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act amended (The Act, 2010). According Singhal (2011), “the U.S. health care reform sets in as the largest change in employer-provided health benefits in

Many people have a lot of questions when it comes to the new healthcare reform law. First off Obamacare is formally called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is the healthcare reform law that was signed in 2010 and now many states have opened their health insurance marketplace exchanges as of October 1, 2013.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) also known as Obama Care has been put into place to transfer the cost of healthcare from employers to the government. Employer provided insurance is common place in America. Nearly 60% of the American public utilizes insurance provided by their employer (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services). Since the proposal of the PPACA it has been surrounded by much controversy concerning the constitutionality of the bill.

On top of regulation, in order to help this system reach everyone, Obamacare is designed to offer insurance rates based on one’s salary. And in addition to salary based premium rates, Obamacare is offering subsidies, which is cost assistance that “lowers the amount you spend on your monthly premium (via advanced premium tax credits) or reduces your out-of-pocket costs for things like copays, coinsurance, deductibles and out-of-pocket maximum (cost sharing reduction).” (http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-subsidies/) Also, small businesses of a minimum 50 employees are now required to offer insurance for their employees, bringing more people closer to the reach of insurance. Those who previously viewed health care coverage as a luxury can now be closer to obtaining affordable coverage. “The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 48% of Americans who buy individual insurance today would be eligible for subsidies. They would receive an average of $5,548, which would cover 66% of the price.” (http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/21/news/economy/obamacare-subsidies/) Aside from insurance regulations, Obamacare has initiated additional perks to enhance the health system for everyone’s benefit. One significant adjustment for children up to ages 19 with pre-existing conditions is that health

Some small employers may also steer their workers to the state’s insurance exchange by dropping the health insurance coverage (Coombs, 2013). While most people who receive health insurance through their employers may not be expecting any changes in their insurance coverage in 2013, reports have indicated that many companies will be seeking to avoid the large-employer responsibility by cutting down on the number of their staff or weekly working hours. Many employers are currently consulting with various insurance brokers or agents of their current insurer to plan for the future. However, looking at various provisions for the healthcare reforms, this paper describes some positive impact of the reform on businesses particularly to the small businesses.

Health insurance can be very costly, and most US citizens end up getting insurance through their employers due to the fact that they cannot afford to pay for it on their own. Jobs that offer group insurance at a low rate usually have higher sign up rates, but some jobs cannot offer group insurance at a low rate and individuals end up paying higher premiums. With so many US citizens relying on their employers for insurance, unfortunately, not all workers have access to employer-sponsored coverage. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) includes additional employer incentives to provide affordable coverage. Even though the ACA has made it a lot easier for every US citizen to have access to insurance, still millions do not sign up and opt to stay uninsured.

It was stated earlier in this paper that big businesses would benefit from this law; however, the exact opposite is true for small businesses. Businesses will be forced to provide healthcare for their employees or pay a fine, something they may not be able to afford. This may result in employees’ hours being cut or even the termination of the employee (“ObamaCare”).

Under the AHCA, employers would eliminate the penalties for the "shared responsibility" mandate which requires employers with 50 or more full-time (or part-time equivalent) employees to offer minimum essential coverage to full-time workers.

The growth of employees’ benefits occurred after World War Two during the first phase of the American Industrialization. The primary reason was to attract employees because of the shortage that World War two which created less available employees in the workforce industry. Another cause leading to benefits growth is the ability of companies with a large number of employees to purchase insurance at a lower cost than individual insurance. Benefits are considered a crucial component of an employee’s overall compensation and might include medical coverage, disability insurance, retirement benefits and investment options in the form of stock share or 401k. The government mandates US companies operating in US to offer obligatory benefits such as Social Security retirement benefits, workers compensation and unemployment insurance. The US health care reform was introduced initially during Harry Truman’s administration, and it was concentrated on the issues of coverage rather than the costs and the consequences. Only on March 23, 2010 the Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama. Under the health care reform every individual is obliged to get coverage through a health plan, Medicaid, or other public programs; otherwise a penalty will be applied. Americans will be able to check the rates and choose a plan online through the health insurance exchange program. Federal subsidies or reductions are available for individuals or families whose incomes fall