Will the new Health Care Reform lower my insurance costs at work?

[yeswecanandwedid]

Currently it costs $900 (or so) per month for insurance at work. The company picks up $200 worth of it, the employee pays the rest. Our company price shopped pretty hard to get these rates. Our company has about 140 employees.

How will the new Health Care Reform legislation help me/us?

[MNDemNY]

1. More likely you will see increases in premiums even greater than in the past,

certainly before 2014 and likely after.

[laughingliberal]

2. If that $900 per month is for an individual

there will be a 40% excise tax imposed on it under the Senate bill. For a family any plan costing $23,000 a year will be subject to the tax. I expect insurance premiums to continue to rise as they have been for employer sponsored and individual plans.

[yeswecanandwedid]

3. Family plan.

If it was $900 for an individual, that would be just nutty.

[laughingliberal]

4. Then, it will likely not affect your plan at all. Except for the problem we already have of premiums

going up every year.

And, I payed $600 per month to cover my husband on a pretty standard plan in 2004. So, I have no doubt there are people paying that for an individual these days. I know one couple paying $2000 per month. They really start gouging people once they pass 50. And companies who employ a lot of older workers get hit hard.

[yeswecanandwedid]

5. That's sad. nt

[Frosty1]

6. Here's what t looks like in this version

If you read the bill text on this item, it's the Health Insurance companies who are going to pay the tax, not the employer, not the employee.

According to section 9001(c) (from http://democrats.senate.gov/reform/patient-protection-a... )



‘(c) LIABILITY TO PAY TAX.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Each coverage provider
shall pay the tax imposed by subsection (a) on its
applicable share of the excess benefit with respect to
an employee for any taxable period.
‘‘(2) COVERAGE PROVIDER.—For purposes of
this subsection, the term ‘coverage provider’ means
each of the following:
‘‘(A) HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE.—If
the applicable employer-sponsored coverage con-
sists of coverage under a group health plan
which provides health insurance coverage, the
health insurance issuer.
‘‘(B) HSA AND MSA CONTRIBUTIONS.—If
the applicable employer-sponsored coverage con- sists of coverage under an arrangement under which the employer makes contributions de- scribed in
subsection (b) or (d) of section 106, the employer.
‘‘(C) OTHER COVERAGE.—In the case of any other applicable employer-sponsored cov- erage, the person that administers the plan ben- efits.

[dkf]

7. Then they will increase your premium even more

Or they will keep premiums level and increase your co pays year after year.

[Frosty1]

8. Maybe not

Given the fact that the health insurance companies will be subject to the 85/80 MLR, they won't be passing this added expense onto the subscriber

[laughingliberal]

9. I still have to go with what Wendall Potter said on the MLR

He was clear that 85% is the level at which the insurance industry is most comfortable that they can manipulate the figures to suit them. The proposal that had it at 90% was shot down by Obama's director of OMB saying it would amount to nationalization of the system. Potter claimed an MLR at that level would have seriously curtailed their ability to hide things with fancy accounting but that they were A-OK with the 85% which is what they got.

[Frosty1]

10. They don't have anything yet

We won't know what they have until the bill is actually passed.

[laughingliberal]

11. What we do know is the MLR will not be over 85%. nt

[OllieLotte]

12. Of course it will.

Santa and the Tooth Fairy have promised me a big 2010. I can hardly wait.