Almost 80 million with employer health care plans could have coverage canceled

[oreo]

Right. So what happens to that plan that is no longer grandfathered?

If it already exceeds the ACA standards, NOTHING happens to your insurance. A shit ton of companies have already lost their grandfather status and it affects them going forward not at all.

Ask your HR department.

It was the loss of grandfather status which is predicted in the register. NOT cancellations. That's two different things.

It's cause and effect. O-care caused and is causing loss and/or significant altering of policies in both the individual and employer markets. Semantic games are insulting and do not help O-care defenders to look honest.

Especially when you have the President of the United States lying to the American public over 40 times about them being able to keep their current insurance if they liked it.

PURPOSE OF OBAMACARE: to insure the unisured EFFECT OF OBAMACARE: uninsuring the insured

 

[thereisnospoon]

Our plan through my wife's employer just got blown up.
We were on a standard 80% with a $2k deductible.
For the three of us it was a little over $400 per month. Not great, but not horrible.
We are reasonably healthy. Well care was free of charge 100% no deductibles.
Now, for well care we have to dip into our health Savings Account. That thing grows at a snail's pace. So now where say a breast exam or colonoscopy, now have to come out of the HSA.
Because of Obamacare we will be paying more.
I guess we are of the "middle class losers"..
Now, if I quit working and work for cash under the table, we qualify for subsidies.
How about that! Obamacare is forcing us to think about options which are less than scrupulous.
At the end of the day, I will do what I must.
I do not think I am the only person thinking of other 'options'.

 

[Katzndogz]

The problem with redistribution is that the family is told that the homeless drug addict will finally get insurance. The family college fund will pay for it. The cancer patient is told that the welfare leech mother of four will get her next abortion paid for. The money for that cancer treatment will be redistributed.

Then the newly annointed rich will resent it, then revolt.

 

[Zoom-boing]

g, what does 'lose grandfather status' mean?

Those employers who sponsored health insurance for their employees prior to the enactment of the ACA were grandfathered. For example, if you work at Intel you have had kickass insurance coverage from that company since long before the ACA, and so your plan was grandfathered.

The ACA contains a provision which states the parameters a company's grandfathered plan must remain inside of to retain its grandfather status. If the company changes their plan outside of these parameters, they lose their grandfather status. For example, if your company raises or lowers your cost share by more than ten percent, the company loses its grandfather status.

Let's say Intel made such a change, and so it loses its grandfather status.

This means Intel's insurance plan must now meet the ACA minimum standards of coverage.

If Intel is like most employers, this bar is already exceeded. They have a great plan which is far and above better than the minimum standards of the ACA.

Therefore, if they lose their grandfather status, how in any way would this cause them to cancel their insurance plan for their employees?

It wouldn't. And that is why cancelling insurance does not necessarily follow your company losing its grandfather status.

This is why I keep stressing to people to ask their HR departments about this and not to just take my word for it. If you are so unfamiliar with your own insurance plan, then you damn well better get your ass down to HR and get more informed about it.

Chance are very good that if your company sponsors health insurance, it is better insurance than the minimum standards. So losing grandfather status will have no impact on you or your company.

Thanks for that answer.

Ok, I thought grandfathered status meant you have an insurance plan that is not (un)aca compliant (say, it doesn't cover prescription drugs) but as long as the insurance company does not change anything on the plan -- and the administration squeezed this down as to what the changes are, they are much more restrictive then they were originally -- you would get to keep that plan. However, that is just a temporary thing as by 2015 ALL plans would have to be (un)aca compliant so eventually that plan would be cancelled and replaced with a compliant plan.

Also, if a plan already is (un)aca compliant, it already covers everything that the gov't now mandates it has to cover, then why would it even need to be grandfathered in? It's already compliant. Grandfathering in is for those plans that are not compliant ... they're letting them stay for a bit longer but eventually those plans will get cancelled.

The other thing is that even though companies may already be (un)aca compliant, there is nothing that says they will continue providing insurance to their employees and may very well say "hey, we're not going to pay for this anymore, we'll pay the fine and let the employees go figure out where to get their coverage from on their own". Personally, I think that's what will cause a lot of policies to be cancelled. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Zoom-boing]

In Massachusetts, 98.1 percent of all residents and 99.8 percent of all children are covered by health insurance. Since 2006, approximately 440,000 individuals are newly insured. Additionally, the percentage of businesses offering coverage has grown since reform from 69 percent in 2001 to 77 percent in 2010.

http://www.mass.gov/anf/docs/anf/strategic-plans/connector-2013-2015strategicplan-in-brief.pdf

That's good to see.

Do you know if Romneycare still relies on federal monies in order to operate?

 

[Zoom-boing]

Changed =/= cancelled.

I see you are very selective in what you will answer.
\
The ONLY reason my plan will get changed (and probably cost more in the process) is because my firm follows my industry lead and since we're a multi million dollar a year firm, the higher ups will shift the plan to a compliant one. The current plan is still cancelled.

You really are engaged in a game of sophistry, dude.

Not everyone is going to be as licky as me. If you call having to pay a lot more for coverage you dont need as lucky.

So like I said, you will end up with BETTER coverage. Not NO insurance, as this bogus 80 million claim implies.


Three things happen when an employer loses their grandfather status.

1) Nothing. Many companies have already lost their grandfather status, as predicted in the Register. But since their policies exceed the minimum standards of the ACA, this loss is insignificant and has no effect on their business practice going forward.

2) Cancellation. Some companies provide insurance which is below the ACA standards. Upon losing their grandfather status, they will be required to offer insurance which does meet the standards. They may choose instead to just cancel their plans and pay the penalties. These penalties will be applied to subsidies for their employees who will now get their insurance from health insurance exchanges. These new policies will have better coverage than what they used to have.

3) Better coverage provided to employees. Some companies provide insurance which is below the ACA standards. Upon losing their grandfather status, they will be required to offer insurance which does meet the standards. They may choose to do this.


And that is why "losing grandfather status" does not automatically mean "will cancel their insurance plans".

You fall under option 3, TakeAStepBack. You did not lose your insurance. You got better coverage insurance! And that is the actual intent of ObamaCare.

And yes, better is going to be more expensive. But it is a lie to say you lost your insurance. The only sophistry going on is you trying to say improved covered counts as "cancelled".



What is being left out of the picture is the many other employers who currently do not provide any insurance whatsoever. They are not grandfathered because they did not have an insurance plan to begin with. These companies will either have to start providing insurance or pay a penalty.



The end result, as was seen in Massachusetts, will be a larger percentage of employers providing health insurance.

'More' does NOT mean 'better'. In what world is having to pay for coverage one neither needs nor wants 'better'? Because uncle says so? Please.