Friday, February 22, 2013

ObozoCare: No Spouse for YOU!!!

Another effect of the Box of Chocolates:  if you're married, he/she will be dropped by your employer.

Companies have a new solution to rising health-insurance costs: Break up their employees’ marriages.

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 its 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. “

...These “spousal carve-outs,” or “working spouse provisions,” generally prohibit only people who could get coverage through their own job from enrolling in their spouse’s plan. Such exclusions barely existed three years ago, but experts expect an increasing number of employers to adopt them: “That’s the next step,” Darling says. HMS, a company that audits plans for employers, estimates that nearly a third of companies might have such policies now. Holdouts say they feel under pressure to follow suit. 

And--when ObozoCare goes live next year?

...experts say more firms are likely to drop spouses altogether, whether they work or not—especially when the new federal health-care exchanges open in 2014, providing an alternative for spouses left out in the cold. “When there’s a place for people to go, employers won’t feel as beholden or compelled to cover the spouse,” says Joan Smyth, an employee benefits consultant with Mercer.

Too bad, sucka!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Experts" with the insurance industry make this claim? Heh.

Amy said...

And when it happens, you can come back and apologize, anony.

Besides, employers will soon realize hiring anyone with a family is a financial problem and start selecting single, childless people for jobs over people with families.

Yay, Forward!

Anonymous said...

Amy, Anony will never apologize for his/her ignorance.

Anonymous said...

Silly 'nony...corporations are doing everything they can to help their workers so long as it doesn't impact their bottom line. Job creators are people, too.

Anonymous said...

The corporation I work for just announced increased coverage in its benefits plan for its "valued employees".

The paradigm shifted years ago 'nony.

Dad29 said...

Some entities will increase benefits; it remains to be seen who will DEcrease them.

But "value" is a wonderfully vague word, ya'know. Value one year is old-school/outdated next.