MC63....
- Thread starter pjjp
- Start date
I never thought he was going to be able to repeal it in one swoop. Now that people can keep their kids on their plans till age 26 and you have no waiting periods or declinations for pre-existing conditions, it isn't going away ever. That is where the largest cost is.
But Trump wants to do away with the individual and large group mandates. If that happens, that alone will break the back of it. Large groups 51+ have to offer group benefits to employees or risk stiff fines per employee per year. The fines of $2,000 per employee per year start after the 30th employee. They also have to offer affordable coverage which charges an employee no more than 9.6% of their monthly income for single coverage of the cheapest plan offered. If any person cannot afford the single premium and decides to go to the marketplace and receives a subsidy, the employer is also fined for that. When an employee has a family, the family income is taken into consideration to determining affordability. Even if the employee doesn't go to the marketplace, any employee whose premium payroll deduction is about the 9.6% threshold will trigger an employer penalty.
Then there are these lovely 1095-C forms that have to go to employees before February 28th in groups of 51+. These are sent as proof the employee did carry creditable coverage to avoid any fines. The insurance companies also send those to employees of all size groups and send a copy to the IRS. This is a nightmare for any employer to fill out. The form isn't hard to fill out, it's just a pain in the *** and time consuming because you must coordinate it with payroll records and plans offered as to their affordability and when a person came on the plan, etc. Many payroll companies do it for their clients and charge pretty heavily.
Then you have the Cadillac tax which is set to kick in, in 2018. This applies an additional tax to employers who offer benefits above what the government mandates. In other words those plans will be called Cadillac plans. My understanding of this tax is that it is also pretty heavy. The unions are vehemently against this tax as most of their plans will fall into the category of Cadillac plans. It was scheduled to kick in originally this year I believe, but Republicans have been successful in stalling it'e implementation.
My solution from the start is to take the people having trouble finding coverage and address that alone. NOT to completely upend the entire system. This whole thing was never about affordable coverage to the Dems. It was about taking control of the entire system.
It is also my feeling that Obamacare was designed to fail and bring the country to a single payer system. Many people share that opinion. That would be a disaster.
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Notable was that in pre-election polling, active military had Gary Johnson at #2 (Trump 45, Johnson 35, and H at 20) but it likely down to the same 2-1 or even 70-30 for Trump as ballots got cast.