“The District’s small businesses may have to buy their employee health insurance through a city-run exchange come 2014, following a controversial vote by a city board. The D.C. Health Benefit Exchange Authority, charged with implementing the federal health-care overhaul law, voted Wednesday to accept a recommendation that all health-insurance plans sold in the city for 50 members or fewer must be purchased through the exchange.”
“A D.C. board has voted to require individuals and small-business owners in the District to purchase their health insurance through the newly minted health exchange it oversees. The D.C. Health Benefit Exchange board approved the regulations late Wednesday, with just one modification to shrink the size of businesses that would come under the regulation.”
“The Health Insurance Tax (HIT) on fully-insured premium markets imposed by Obamacare could raise $87 billion over the next ten years and also cost between 125,000 and 249,000 jobs by 2021, according to a study.”
“Even as the new health care law adds millions of insured customers to the paying pool, medical device manufacturers say a tax on their product could cost them billions… But the manufacturers say the tax will force money away from research, send jobs overseas and stop them from expanding in the U.S.”
“Mr. Summers was more comfortable discussing the health care law’s implications for the broader economy than the direct effect on his own business. We talked at length about why he fears his customers could retrench in the wake of the law’s execution — and how his suppliers might pass on their increased costs to him, raising his costs as his revenue is squeezed.”
“In the latest indication of how complicated putting the Affordable Care Act into action will be, the Department of Health and Human Services and Internal Revenue Service issued 18-pages of regulations just to describe what a ‘full-time employee’ is. Of note, to the Feds a full-time employee works an average of just 30 hours a week, not the normally accepted 40 hours.”
“So, benefits and HR professionals are going to be responsible for providing information on a new state-run program that won’t be part of anything they do in their everyday job? The simple answer is yes. So, on March 1, 2013 when you hand an employee the state health insurance exchange guide, get ready for the following questions from employees…”
“Tomorrow, the government’s liberty-crushing mandate that has elicited widespread outcry and led a federal judge to grant a preliminary injunction against the rule for a for-profit business will officially take effect. On August 1, Obamacare’s preventive health services mandate will be implemented, and with it the Health and Human Services (HHS) anti-conscience mandate. After Wednesday, nearly all employers will be forced, at the beginning of their next health plan year, to pay for coverage of abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization—regardless of moral or religious objections.”
“The Affordable Care Act could cost McDonald’s and its franchisees more than $400 million a year in additional health-care expenses, Chief Financial Officer Peter Bensen said on Monday. McDonald’s estimates that each restaurant will incur between $10,000 and $30,000 in added annual costs.”
“Around one in 10 employers in the U.S. plans to drop health coverage for workers in the next few years as the bulk of the federal health-care law begins, and more indicated they may do so over time, according to a study to be released Tuesday by consulting company Deloitte.”