<p>I wonder if there will be undue burdens on smaller employers who care since employer mandate is being pushed out an year?</p>
<p>axw- if you are on SDI, don’t you get medicare? If your income is low you should see subsidies.</p>
<p>Regarding the OP, how much do your employees make, would they be eligible for the subsidies? </p>
<p>Here is one calculator, there are also sites with the charts showing income per family size:</p>
<p>[Subsidy</a> Calculator | The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation](<a href=“http://kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/]Subsidy”>Health Insurance Marketplace Calculator | KFF)</p>
<p>Hi somemom. When you qualify for SSDI, there’s a 6 month waiting period before payments start. Then another waiting period of 24 months before Medicare kicks in. For some very few medical conditions Medicare starts earlier. I’m glad not to have one of those conditions.</p>
<p>Rates in my state have gone up at the slowest rate in 20 years, and are going to actually drop under our health care exchanges. </p>
<p>axw is correct - a very large percentage of potential SSDI recipients of medicare die before they receive it. We wrestled with this for a friend for almost five years. (He shocked them all by living - even though he had a condition known to be 99% fatal.)</p>
<p>Our local paper is doing a series on Obamacare. It’s pretty good, and y’all might find it interesting, even though on the local level it’s about Virginia, and may not be applicable to all states. It talks about impacts on individuals, businesses, insurance, and hospitals. The second installment was published yesterday. Both installments can be accessed from here: <a href=“http://blogs.roanoke.com/medbeat/2013/07/understanding-obamacare-series-to-continue-this-sunday/[/url]”>http://blogs.roanoke.com/medbeat/2013/07/understanding-obamacare-series-to-continue-this-sunday/</a></p>
<p>(I’m not sure if I can link to a blog - if not, go to roanoke.com and find it)</p>
<p>To AXW – if you are on SSDI, in most states you may be eligible for expanded Medicaid - see [About</a> Medicaid](<a href=“http://www.familiesusa.org/issues/medicaid/about-medicaid.html]About”>http://www.familiesusa.org/issues/medicaid/about-medicaid.html)</p>
<p>If your income is still above the medicaid level, you would probably qualify for subsidies – so you would probably see your insurance premium go down. </p>
<p>So the first question is what state you live in. </p>
<p>The subsidies are going to really help people on the lower end of the economic scale, but it looks like there will be a huge jump in rates for anyone whose income is high enough to put them outside the range of subsidies (about $46K/annually for an individual)</p>
<p>I think it is extremely generous that the OP has covered their 2 employees with NO employee contribution to date for health coverage.
Maybe that cannot continue. </p>
<p>This landscape has been shifting for much longer than Obamacare.
Years ago, I paid NOTHING to insure my entire family though my employer.
Perhaps 10 yrs ago, we began paying (low) premiums. These have increased moderately over time. Still a blessing to have the coverage and no one I know at work disagrees that some contribution toward coverage is necessary.</p>
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<p>As if you don’t already pay for it when uninsured people use the emergency room as their source of care.</p>
<p>What will be interesting is to see how many people who are eligible still don’t enroll. Here in NY, we have very generous options and people STILL don’t sign up, even at the hospital. THere have been some recent studies done on the topic and answers are not immediately apparent, but the assumption that people who have a choice other than the emergency room will generally take it is not necessarily correct.</p>
<p>Here’s a topic nobody has even touched on. The prevailing trend now is for hospitals to buy physicians practices. This drives up the cost of care as hospitals charge patients a lot more for the same services than if the patient was seeing the doctor in a private office. Hospitals are allowed to charge what is called a facility fee, which is an often neglected charge on a hospital bill. This facility fee adds absolutely nothing to the quality of care that patients receive. This is definitely being encouraged by the government, and it will only add to the overall cost of care.</p>
<p>OP, I agree with somemom and busdriver. The high deductible plan is better in that you are not spending the $5500/person deductible unless you are actually sick or injured. Most of these plans still cover at least an annual physical (not counted in the deductible). </p>
<p>And if you start HSA’s for the employees and for your family, you can have the employees contribute a small amount to it each pay period to help cover the deductible should they need it. Really, nowadays hardly anyone doesn’t have to contribute at all to their health care insurance/costs.</p>
<p>I honestly think some here need to dig for additional info on what’s going to happen and how it will roll out. Not assume. And, no, there isn’t much info- everyone is saying the details won’t be out til October; (everyone I’ve spoken with, that is.) I personally don’t think enough is out yet to point a finger very specifically and hit the right target. No one I know on the hospital side, insurers, agents or advocates seems to know enough, yet.</p>
<p>I also thought the bottom line in making these plans work was going to be state by state. The indiv/family tax credits, aiui, will apply for up to far more than poverty level. </p>
<p>Healthcare.gov: Starting in 2014, businesses with 50 or fewer full-time equivalent (FTE) employees can use SHOP to offer coverage to their employees. You control the coverage you offer and how much you pay toward premium costs. And small businesses may qualify for a tax credit.</p>
<p>It’s tough, yes. But we are one heck of a big country, with many disparate needs. Plenty of folks would like to see some more universal form of coverage- I don’t run into many would willingly pay for that. </p>
<p>Not an expert. I had to change coverage and it bites. Supposedly, in October, we all get a chance to review our options. ?</p>
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<p>This is nonsensical. Small businesses may not be forced to implement parts of ACA that larger businesses do, but EVERYONE who is a current paying health insurance client is AFFECTED by the across the board premium increases. </p>
<p>We haven’t even started to see the effects of practitioners closing their practices to certain insurance types. </p>
<p>Was the old system broken and in need of a fix…IMHO yes. But what we have now (and we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg) is what happens when a quick fix is put into place (remember, many parts of the original ACA were left blank stating something along the lines of ‘TBD’) which addresses not the business issues of the original problem but the personal issues of those writing the bill. (fill in the blanks here…don’t want to get the thread closed)</p>
<p>“but EVERYONE who is a current paying health insurance client is AFFECTED by the across the board premium increases.”</p>
<p>Except there aren’t across-the-board premium increases. That’s what we’ve had for the past 20 years.</p>
<p>Sorry Dietz, ACA is still being implemted. It is too early to bury it. </p>
<p>Lookingforward is right. Mini is right.</p>
<p>btw: HSA’s are now capped at $2500/yr…still worth a look, but it cannot recapture the totality of a really high deductible plan.</p>
<p>^^bluebayou, I think you are referring to the lastest cap on flex spending accounts for people with employer plans (HCSA). I kept confusing the two, but the HSA is different.</p>
<p>This is what I found online about HSA caps for 2013:</p>
<p>“HSA holders can choose to save up to $3,250 for an individual and $6,450 for a family (HSA holders 55 and older get to save an extra $1,000 which means $4,250 for an individual and $7,450 for a family) - and these contributions are 100% tax deductible from gross income.”</p>
<p>Not unlimited, but better than the HCSA allowance.</p>
<p>oh yes, sorry.</p>
<p>The $2500 cap is for Flexible (healthcare) Spending Accounts.</p>
<p>If by they you mean insurance companies, yes. Quite likely.</p>
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<p>Oh I am know it won’t be buried. It is also highly likely that the unintended consequences will be ignored or trivialized until a number of small businesses have failed. </p>
<p>Really, if you are a small business (under 50) see if there is any way you can manage the accounting so that your personal income falls under the subsidy limits. This is a ‘take it a year at a time’ situation.</p>