Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/536121
38 PalletCentral • July-August 2015 palletcentral.com timers) as of January 1, 2015 and 50 full-time equivalent people as of January 1, 2016. Or you'll face a penalty. 2. Your health care policies still stay the same. Insurance companies are still required to provide coverage for the minimum level of essential health benefits, such as not discriminating for pre-existing conditions, reimbursement for contraception, coverage for dependents, maternity care, etc. You will still see the same Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum plans. However, your costs could be significantly going up. And the following two points explain why. 3. More of your employees will want coverage under your plan. Some of your employees may be opting to get their insurance from a health care exchange because, with subsidies, it's less expensive than what you're offering. This is good for you, the employer, because you're not incurring that cost. But this is also bad for you, the taxpayer, because it's the taxpayer subsidies that are paying for this (but let's not go there). However, if those subsidies are taken away because you're in a state that doesn't have its own exchange then the employee will need to turn to your plan to stay in compliance with the individual mandate. Your company will then be incurring the cost of paying for his health care coverage, where previously you weren't. 4. And you'll be paying even more because it has to be affordable. The ACA requires that employees cannot be paying more than 9.5 percent of their household income for health care costs. The lower earners that were previously receiving subsidies will hit that threshold sooner than everyone else. You will need to jump in and contribute more to their cost in order to keep it affordable for them. The bottom line? Check to see if you're in a state affected by this ruling. If you're in a state with its own exchange, then you're not affected—yet. That's because no one knows yet what changes could be made to the law or the potential effects on premiums and other costs to the insurance industry if exchange enrollment drops. If you're in a state that relies on a federal exchange then you have to focus on your lower-paid people, the ones who may be receiving their subsidized insurance from an exchange. You'll need to help them decide what their options are and you'll need to budget for the additional cost if they choose to come on board with your plan (which is more than likely). Yes, I agree that sometimes running a business can be maddening, particularly when the government is involved. But when it comes to big issues like employee health care, we need to put our emotions aside and make our plans based on the facts. BUSINESS iStock.com/Rallef