Large employers will not be penalized under ACA for failing to offer coverage for dependents

[eridani]

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.

The ACA generally defines “affordable” insurance as coverage that costs no more than 9.5 percent of an employee’s household income in employee-paid premiums. The proposed rule does require that employers must offer coverage to the dependent children (up to the age of 26) of their employees or pay a penalty, but does not require that coverage to meet any threshold of affordability.

[Enrique]

1. sounds like a "business-friendly" interpretation

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/corporate-profits-have-grown-171-percent-under-obama-highest-rate-1900

Corporate Profits Have Grown By 171 Percent Under Obama -- Highest Rate Since 1900
Twice as high as the Reagan years.
January 17, 2013 |


Business executives like to portray the Obama administration as the “ most anti-business” in history, creating an “ increasingly hostile environment for investment and job creation.” However, the data tells a far different story. According to a Bloomberg News analysis, corporate profits have grown by 171 percent under Obama, the most in the post-war era: