Friday, February 22, 2013

Another Consequence of Obamacare

From February 22, 2013 Marketwatch:
By denying coverage to spouses, employers not only save the annual premiums, but also the new fees that went into effect as part of the Affordable Care Act. This year, companies have to pay $1 or $2 “per life” covered on their plans, a sum that jumps to $65 in 2014. And health law guidelines proposed recently mandate coverage of employees’ dependent children (up to age 26), but husbands and wives are optional. “The question about whether it’s obligatory to cover the family of the employee is being thought through more than ever before,” says Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health....
Firms that recently decided to drop spouses from their plans range from private insurance agencies to school systems and universities like Ball State, as well as large companies like pump and valve manufacturer Flowserve. Wisconsin-based furniture company KI carved out spouses this year when couples flocked to its plan for the first time during open enrollment. “Now, each employer is responsible for its own employee,” says Timothy Van Severen, corporate risk manager for KI, which insures about 1,700 employees in its health plan. “We were going to see a higher claim cost if we didn’t do that, because of the migration coming back to us.”
The article indicates that women are more likely to lose coverage than men, because, amazingly enough, there are still more men than women who work full-time.  Just another example of the Democrats screaming about a Republican "War on Women" to distract attention from the consequences of their own policies. But as long as partial-birth abortions and free contraception are the defining aspects of health care, women will continue to vote Democrat.

1 comment:

  1. It is amazing how many of this administration's programs and policies just happen to have the "unintended consequence" of economically undermining the traditional family unit.

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