Scope:
The purpose of the paper is to provide an overview of the affordable care act and discuss its effects on large businesses.
Introduction:
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka “Health Care Reform Act”) signed into law earlier this year by President Obama is potentially the most significant change in health care and health-benefits law ever passed, as some commentators believe it will lead to greater collective changes in the provision of health-care benefits than the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), Medicare, and Medicaid combined. According to the Obama administration, the main purpose of the ACA is to reduce health care costs, guarantee health insurance to all Americans regardless of preexisting
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As one of the largest groups of large employers, colleges and universities are in store for many changes in how they offer group health benefits, what they offer, and what they provide employees in terms of required alternatives in the years to come as a result of this landmark legislation.
What is Affordable Employee Health Insurance?
Affordable means that a plan costs no more than 9.5% of employee’s household income for employee-only coverage. As a safe harbor, employers can simply make sure the plan costs no more than 9.5% of employee-only income. Under the ACA, for the purposes of providing an employee with health benefits, full-time is defined as working an average of 30 hours a week or more or 130 hours a month. To be considered full-time, the employee must work more than 120 days in a year.
In simple terms, FTE or “full-time equivalent” = (the total number of full-time employees) +(the combined number of Part-time employee hours divided by 30). The requirement to insure employees is based on full-time equivalent employees (FTE), which includes Part-time hours.
• Employers have to offer coverage to “substantially all” (95%) of their full-time employees.- Employees who work at least 30 hours per week or whose service hours equal at least 130 hours a month for more than 120 days in a year are considered full-time.
• Coverage must be offered to dependents up to age 26. Once a dependent
President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010. This law puts in place widespread health insurance reforms that expanded out over the last 4 years and continues to change the lives of many Americans today. Health care reform has been an extensively debated topic for multiple years, and the ACA is the first effective attempt at passing a law aiming to make health care not only affordable, but accessible for all individuals. The law impacts many Americans including, children, employers, government programs which includes federal and state, health plans and private insurers, health care coverage, health care cost, and the quality of care received. The main goal of the law is to expand health care coverage, broaden Medicaid eligibility, minimize and regulate health care cost, and improve the health care delivery system. In order to improve the health care delivery there have been new consumer protections established and an increase access to affordable care.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been a topic of dispute since its introduction and continues to be discussed by politicians in the U.S. and throughout the world even after its passage. The Act has many opponents and is the cause of much controversy nationwide, primarily because it introduces higher healthcare costs for the richest citizens. Nevertheless, the ACA is an important stage in the American healthcare development process as it not only allows more people to receive healthcare services, but will also reduce the deficit. However, not everyone agrees. The policy is controversial in terms of cost vs. benefits, but the benefits ultimately outweigh the costs.
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.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is considered to be one of the most radical health care moves in legislation after Medicare. The reason being that it will provide universal health coverage to everyone regardless of circumstance. An evaluation of ACA’s influence on health care will be evaluated in this paper.
At last, the law gave new alternatives and motivating forces to help states rebalance their Medicaid long haul mind programs for group based administrations and backings as opposed to institutional care. All in all, these arrangements have quickened Medicaid advancement effectively in progress in numerous states. Also improved with the ACA besides Medicaid, is Medicare. The Affordable Care Act incorporates a progression of Medicare changes that will create billions of dollars in reserve funds for Medicare and fortify the care Medicare recipients get. The new law secures ensured benefits for all Medicare recipients, and gives new advantages and administrations to seniors on Medicare that will help keep seniors solid. The law likewise incorporates arrangements that will enhance the nature of care, create and advance new models of care conveyance, suitably value administrations, modernize our wellbeing framework, and battle waste, extortion, and mishandle. A big topic that is affected from ACA is businesses. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- otherwise known as Obamacare -- is putting such a small dent in the profits of U.S. companies that many refer to its impact as 'not material' or 'not significant. Even after a provision went into effect this year requiring companies with 50 or more full-time workers to provide coverage, and after more workers are choosing to enroll in existing company coverage because of another requirement that all Americans get
Ever since Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) into law in 2010, it has been met by criticism from many people from many different ideologies. Although the law held promise for allowing all individuals to afford healthcare and all of its benefits, that is not to say it does not have its downsides. Since passing, both the conservative and democratic parties have found reasons to dislike the law. This essay will include a description of the law itself, criticisms from the two parties, and a personal reading into the Affordable Care Act and the potential it has at actually making a positive impact on the American health care industry.
The Affordable Care Act was signed into law early spring of 2010. It’s probably the most comprehensive reform we’ve seen in the United States healthcare system within the last forty four years. Although the law was put into effect, the features of the new law took effect in 2014. The Affordable Care Act changed the non insurance group market in the United States, mandates most residents to have health insurance, considerably expand public insurance and subsidize private insurance, while raising revenue from a variety of new taxes. Projecting the impacts of the health care system will be challenging, but related estimates were required for the legislative process, and conducted by the Congressional Budget Office.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as ObamaCare, is a healthcare reform law that focus on providing more Americans with access to affordable health insurance. “The ACA is expected to add 32 million people seeking primary and preventive service and treatment” (journalofnursingregulation.com). It was first enacted by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The act has offered a number of people with benefits, set up a place they can purchase health insurance, expanded the use of Medicaid and Medicare to the disabled and senior citizens. The Act has forced many employers to offer coverage to their employees. Despite all of the positive attributes this act has provided, there is a flip side to it. Americans are required to have health
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) set out to radically change the American health care system, bringing coverage to Americans who would otherwise be disqualified for several reasons whether it be loss of coverage from employer, parents or pre-existing health conditions. The second major initiative is strengthening Medicare with emphasizing resources and coverage for preventive health care. All feeding into the umbrella
As the years go on, everything around us is constantly changing and becoming more advanced. The recent election of our president has and will force us to see some very big changes in the next few months. ObamaCare also known as the Affordable Care Act was set in place by President Obama in order to reduce health care costs and give affordable health insurance to Americans. I was very skeptical about researching this because it is such a controversial topic but I chose to move forward with learning more about ObamaCare. The New Year is approaching quickly and this new healthcare system will
Based on the research report Monitoring the Impact of the Affordable Care Act on Employers by Blavin, Bowen, Blumberg, Buettgens, Gadsden, Rifkin, (2014) It was stated that “employer based coverage premiums became higher during 2002 and 2012 the rate exceeded NHEA growth.” Companies with less than “fifty
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”).
Investor 's Business Daily (IBD) has compiled a list of organizations that have reduced employees’ hours, eliminated jobs, or taken other steps to avoid the costs of PPACA implementation. The list to date includes 258 organizations. Other companies have also trimmed the number of full-time staff to below 50 workers to avoid PPACA’s full-time-equivalent worker rule. This mandate requires organizations to provide health insurance to their employees if they have 50 or more full-time employees or full-time employee equivalent. A full-time equivalent is a combination of
Full-Time 9-Hour and 8-Hour Workday Employees: For each holiday, full-time 9-hour and 8-hour employees receive holiday pay for the number of hours they are regularly scheduled to work. When a holiday occurs on the employee's day off, the employee receives 8 hours of holiday pay or 8 hours of compensatory time.
The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as “Obamacare”, has drastically altered healthcare in America. The goal of this act was to give Americans access to affordable, high quality insurance while simultaneously decreasing overall healthcare spending. The ACA had intended to maximize health care coverage throughout the United States, but this lofty ambition resulted in staggeringly huge financial and human costs.