Obamacare and Your Employees’ Health

June, 29 2015

The saying, “you have nothing without your health” is so true. Recently, some of my clients have shared with me their battles with illness or injury that have resulted in loss of work and in turn, loss of income. Getting sick is bad news, but it’s even worse when you don’t have health insurance because you can’t afford it.

Three things you need to know if you are covered under the Affordable Care Act.

Late last week, in a six to three vote, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act also known as ACA or Obamacare. The ruling means that millions of people who depend on these subsidies to buy their health insurance will continue to receive them. Believe it or not, this applies to more than a million Floridians.

But what does this mean to you and me? If you are not signed up for Obamacare, then not much. But if you are among the 6.5% of Floridians enrolled in the federal marketplace as of Jan. 30th of this year, there are three parts of the law you need to know about:

  • INSURANCE REQUIRED – Under ACA, everyone must have insurance. If you don’t, you will get fined.
  • PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS – The ruling means patients cannot be denied coverage for pre-existing medical conditions.
  • SUBSIDIES REMAIN – The rulings means there won’t be any new ACA premium increases or policy adjustments for now and that subsidies, provided by the 16 state health exchanges, can remain for millions of patients.

People in favor of ACA say under it, the number Americans that remain uninsured has gone down to just 13%.

Republicans and Democrats are divided by the ruling. Democrats, like Florida Representative Patrick Murphy of Jupiter, are thrilled with the ruling, saying “the critical funding is needed for health coverage.” Republicans say they’ll continue to fight against Obamacare saying it doesn’t allow patients to control their own health.

No matter what side of the aisle you stand on, we can all agree that without health, nothing much else matters. Hopefully you, your employees and your family have a health plan to depend on.

If you have questions about ACA and how it will affect your company’s bookkeeping or accounting, please feel free to e-mail or call me or anyone on the Brigade Bookkeeping team. We’re here to help.

In the meantime, here’s to health and happiness!