The Relationship Between Corporate Governance, Healthcare Reform, And The Accounting Industry

The Affordable Care Act is considered to be a landmark legislation that sought to bring changes to overhaul the health care system within the United States. While the ACA has brought necessary improvements and changes to how health care is handled, it has also directly affected many stakeholders within the health care industry. The major stakeholders of health care are considered to affect each and every aspect of the massive industry, and can be influential. This paper will be specifically addressing the effects of the ACA on the employer stakeholder group. It will talk about the new responsibilities and taxes employers must face, how the ACA is currently affecting employers at the moment and into the future, how the employees and their dependents will be affected by these changes, and finally what strategies employers can take to mitigate

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

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

Employers should offer affordable( employee premium less than 9.5% of employee’s wages) and of minimum value( employers must pay at least 60% of insurance cost) healthcare benefits to their employees depending on factors like number of FTE, number of employees receiving premium tax credits and other complex measurements to calculate the amounts. Employers should also notify employees by written about State exchanges, and advise them that if an employee decides to purchase a health Plan through an exchange, they may lose the employers’

In order to make insurance affordable to all there were extensive private health insurance regulatory reforms, particularly in the small group and non-group markets, there were tax credits offered to the smallest lowest-wage employers for the purchase of health insurance, there were reductions in cost-sharing associated with recommended preventive care. For example if you signed up with a fitness center you can get a 50% discount on your insurance. The market exchange was established for the purchase of private coverage plus subsidies for the individual purchase of coverage and for the cost-sharing of the modest income. “The affordable care act also expanded the eligibility for the Medicaid program to all non-elderly with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level ($23,000 to $32,000 for a family of four in 2012) starting in 2014, which helped phase out the Medicare prescription drug benefit coverage gap, a.k.a. the “doughnut hole”.” To make sure that everyone is complying with the rule of everyone needs to have healthcare coverage there was a penalty set up for those that failed to comply. The penalty was if you did not have insurance by the set date you will receive a tax penalty that you will have to pay when filling your taxes. There are financial requirements that large- and medium sized

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act may negatively impact some employees; if an employee has coverage through its employer the insurance premium must be less than 9.5% of their income. For example if the employee premium is $3600 a year and the 20% share of the premium is $720 and the employee makes $45,000 a year; $45,000 x 9.5%= $4275 which is greater than $720. Therefore this coverage would be deemed affordable. However if this particular employee has a family of four the premium for the family would be an additional $7500 a year. In this case this individual would be eligible for tax credits to help afford the health insurance coverage if their employer did not provide health coverage (Lee, 2013).

While the Affordable Care Act was implemented in 2010, the most significant changes in the healthcare system began in 2013 with the expansion of Medicaid. According to the ACA’s official website, the law’s main goals are to create cost efficient health insurance and medical services, as well as expand Medicaid so that the stated programs will be available to more Americans. (“Affordable Care Act (ACA)”). To do so, the ACA imposed many requirements on both sides of the health care system. The ACA has expanded federal regulations on private insurance providers by requiring that these companies cannot deny coverage based on the health of the beneficiary. The ACA has also established a marketplace for health insurance to be purchased by small businesses and individuals. Finally, the most noteworthy reform is the requirement for all Americans to purchase minimum coverage, or pay a penalty. However, those who cannot afford coverage and have “an income below 138% of the Federal Poverty Level eligible for Medicaid” will be paid for by the government (“The Affordable Care Act in the US”).

According to David Nather’s The New Health Care System: Everything You Need to Know, in 2009, 8% of premiums went to cover the uninsured (pg.38). To alleviate that problem, the Affordable Care Act created the individual mandate, which requires everyone to get health insurance. The idea is that the mandate will force healthy people to get insurance, which will then subsidize the sick and the old. If people do not get insurance, then they will pay a fine to the government. If you cannot afford health insurance then you can apply for an exemption. The new decree does not allow insurance companies to deny coverage and they cannot charge you more if you are sick. The law

Despite the fact that the ACA is intended to be great ideology, it has affected three components of the current health care system operation, policy, procedure, and implementation. The first key factor the ACA has affected is the relationships of the health care system at large, as such individuals are mandated to have health insurance and insurers are forced to accept individuals who would

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act or ACA, enables citizens to have affordable health insurance coverage through several legislative provisions (Rosenbaum, 2011). It is through these provisions that the government,

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law on March 23rd, 2010 by President Barack Obama. This radical health care law was a much-needed step in comprehensive health insurance reform. Three important features of the Affordable Care Act are 1. Improving quality and lowering health care costs 2. New consumer protections and 3. Increased access to healthcare. (Key Features. 2014). Under the umbrella of these three key features additional benefits include free preventive care, drug discounts for senior citizens, increased protection against health care fraud, small business tax credits, increased access to health care through the health insurance marketplace, consumer assistance, and non-discrimination based on pre-existing conditions.

According to the United States Census Bureau, in 2012 the percentage of people without health insurance was of 15.4 percent. The percentage of people covered by employment health insurance was of 54.9 percent or 170.9 million. The percentage of people covered by Medicare was of 15.7 percent or 48.9 million. The percentage of uninsured children under age 18 was of 8.9 percent or 6.6 million (De Navas-Walt, 30). One of the mandates under the ACA is the individual mandate. This mandate requires that most Americans obtain health insurance by March 31, 2014 (“ObamaCare Individual Mandate", n.d.). Another mandate under the ACA is the employer mandate. Under this mandate, the ACA requires “all businesses with over 50 full time equivalent employees to provide health insurance for their full-time employees” ("ObamaCare Employer Mandate", n.d.) The ACA has also created a health insurance exchange also known as the Marketplace. This Marketplace allows the public to shop and compare different insurance plans side-by-side by guaranteeing the best deal as the prices are regulated by this law. Uninsured Americans will be able to get free or low cost health insurance through the State’s Health Insurance Marketplace and Medicaid has been expanded up to 15.9 million men, women and Children below 138% of the poverty level. ("ObamaCare | Health Insurance Exchange", n.d.).

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”).

A crucial component of the ACA is the individual and employer mandates. The individual mandate entails that those

Title I of the Act is “Quality Affordable Healthcare for All Americans”, this is the most important and widely discussed part, as it deals with health insurance. It is a very complicated title. Our leaders decided to make a complex and costly healthcare payment system more complex and costly. I feel that everyone is required to have coverage and should be able to have the coverage that this Affordable Care Act offers. It one of the ways coverage is financially viable. They do help people who have difficulty affording coverage will get assistance paying for it unless they are under the 133% poverty level. Those people will go on Medicaid unless their state refuses to expand Medicaid. This is a great part to the act. The primary care and preventives services are a large part to this act. Said in nursing world, “ACA places new restriction on health insurance plans by requiring increased access to and coverage of preventive services. The ACA increases Medicaid