Obamacare. Not so affordable for your spouse.

[NM_Shooter]

My wife spent the day in training at her company today.  She is a CPA / Financial analyst for a major defense contractor. 

She came home and told me that she was shocked to find out that the Affordable Health Care Act requires employers to provide health coverage for dependents, but not spouses. 

I am really hoping that she heard that wrong.  She insists not. 

This is why we need less government.  When they start insisting on poking their heads into private affairs, they end up screwing up more than they fix. 

[MikeC]

Hmm.  Gotta be some kind of legislative oversight. if correct. If ONEs goal was to force more into the workplace just to be insured, well then it would make sense. 

Must be a mistake. of some kind.

[NM_Shooter]

Rats.  No, spouses are not included:

"But the IRS's definition of dependents in the proposed rule excludes the spouses of employees, regardless of whether the spouse is employed."


Reference:
http://truth-out.org/news/item/14019-even-with-the-affordable-care-act-health-insurance-coverage-remains-unaffordable-for-many

[Tickhill]

Hmm.  Gotta be some kind of legislative oversight. if correct. If ONEs goal was to force more into the workplace just to be insured, well then it would make sense. 

Must be a mistake. of some kind.

This current regime is full of oversights, mainly the Constitution.

[Ndrmyr]

Prices of group health insurance have escalated sharply for the past few years in anticipation of ObamaCare.  The price of an individual in a group in the top tier, say a 60 year old male at $700/Mo, can not be more than 300% of the price of an individual in the bottom tier, say, an 19 year old male at $140/mo.  Since with escalating prices, the 60 year old price can not come down, the young males price must rise to $238.  Ironically, the one of the largest Obama voting blocks will experience the greatest inflation in health care costs.  Sadly, with the only underwriting factor being allowed is age, gender and tobacco use, access to individual coverage, which, if one could qualify, was always cheaper than group health insurance will change dramatically.
The government sponsered exchanges will be forced to pay claims with their collected premiums.  One suspects that they will be the recipients of large groups of claim intensive insureds and it is highly likely that the cost of exchanges over the next 2-3 years will rocket upward as they struggle to pay claims.  As their prices rise, members will leave in search of cheaper costs.
As the government attempts to create cost redcution by reducing payable charges to providers, our pool of general practicioners will fall.  The time, effort and cost to become a GP is to great without a profit incentive. 
As usual, Governement intervention with the free market system will create ugly results.  The Gov't talks about volume bringing discounts, and that might be correct if everyone was paying premiums, or gainfully employed with an employer paying or subsidizing premiums.
This whole thing has been poorly planned and executed and is smoke and mirrors.  Expect chaos in the system as we approach Jan 2014.  There will be mandates to comply with and no clear explanation of what compliance requires.
With our healthcare system firmly in hand, our government will now focus on wrestling our guns from our unwilling hands. Enjoy the show folks!

[NM_Shooter]

Remember... we had to pass it so we can find out what was in it. 

[rick91351]

And Joe declared "This is a big deal isn't?"

Rick

[Ndrmyr]

An ongoing travesty is that in many cases, the poor, with free medical from Medicaid have superior, even far superior coverage than many who work.  My wife and I are self-employed so purchase our own coverage.  With individual $5000 deductibles, last year, we spent $14,000 for medical insurance.  We know that any medical utilization on our parts is pretty much out-of-pocket on top of that.  Sadly, I haven't received that much medical care in my entire life.
I am aware of many who made decent wages that are gambling and going without medical because they simply can't afford it.  I don't see ObamaCare helping this, in fact, it will almost certainly worsen it by driving prices upward.
Ultimately, it is our access to providers that will suffer.  With insurors capped to a flat percentage over claims to cover expenses (the number I'm hearing is 8%) will they become more generous at claims handling?  A major insurer (you know them, they are probably #2 or #3 nationwide), in my neck of the woods extracts a 42% discount from medical providers.
Did anyone catch the news story about the company that brokers surgeries for cash payers.  If you pay cash on the barrel head, you can extract surgical prices similar to Asian and India prices without overseas travel.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/traveling-healthcare-not-far-153259738.html
Perhaps we're heading back to a time when cash is king again.....

[flyingvan]

Talk to you doctor about this.  Ask them if they continue to practice medicine under Obamacare.   Mine is planning to take an early retirement.

[Ndrmyr]

A lot of docs are retiring or, taking management positions if available.

[Woodsrule]

Hello all,

Following is an excerpt that all of us at our company received today. The HR folks spell out that the new reporting requirement is "informational only", but color me suspicious. If the feds wanted me to know what my health care cost me and my employer, that's real nice, but none of THEIR business. Just wait a couple of years and this will most definitely be taxable income. I wonder if folks on welfare who receive SSI get notified of what that costs US.



Good morning:

2012 Form W-2 will be distributed to all employees on Friday, January 25, 2013.  We would like to make you aware that one of the federal Health Care Reform requirements mandates employers beginning in 2012 to report the aggregate cost of employer-sponsored health care coverage on an employee's Form W-2.  This cost is reported in Box 12 using Code DD.  The reporting of this cost is informational only and is not taxable. The purpose of this mandated reporting is to provide useful and comparable information to employees on the total cost of their health care coverage.