Healthcare facts email

[finknottle]

I'm trying to find out. So say you have 5 employees, and they make 80K+ a year, and they all pay 100% their own insurance, or do you guys pick up part of it? (I know it's a small business, I am not making any judgment whatsoever on whether or not you guys should pay for employee insurance, most 5 person places can't.)

 

No they pay all - it's understood as part of the salary.

 

(These are all mid-career people who wouldn't want the kind of cut-rate package that a small company could arrange. Generally speaking, if getting their own insurance is a problem then they go to the safety of a big company.)

[Kelly the Dog]

No they pay all - it's understood as part of the salary.

 

(These are all mid-career people who wouldn't want the kind of cut-rate package that a small company could arrange. Generally speaking, if getting their own insurance is a problem then they go to the safety of a big company.)

I don't know the answer to your question. You may be exempt and you may not be for the employees.

 

If they pay 8K a year for their insurance, you could always just cut their pay by that much and pay it yourself and have no additional tax. One of the great elements of the reform bill is allowing small businesses and individuals to join huge pools that weren't available to them before from the major private insurers.

 

Or if they are all insured, for instance, and pay over 4K a year for it, you could always cut their pay by 4K (or whatever the bare bones coverage is) and put that same 4K into a bare bones plan, satisfy the requirement and then they can get any additional coverage a la carte that they want above the 4K they were paying. That's what going to be in the exchange, all kinds of little plans for various stuff offered by all the private companies.

 

There has been all kinds of talk about these kinds of businesses and how they will be subsidized. I can't say what they are close to deciding on.

[Kelly the Dog]

I don't even think people across the country know what the public plan is, how it works, who would go for it, how much it would cost, etc.

 

Basically it's this, and this is all according to the CBO evaluation of the House plan, which you can look at yourself below.

1] All kinds of private insurers, the ones that already exist, will be able to offer private plans in this "exchange". All that is is a list of plans you can access online and shop from like amazon.com. There will be all kinds of plans from bare bones to gold-plated plans.

 

2] One option on that exchange will include "The Public Plan". Those exact same private companies are going to offer their versions of "the public plan" and you can see how much it's going to cost and what they offer. These private companies have their option of whether they want to offer a "public plan" or not. The CBO says most will because of all the new people who will be buying insurance.

 

3] The public plans must follow pre-determined government guidelines on payments and basic services. The private companies will be paid less for their services but it will only be 10% than they get now for their private services, according to the CBO. The private companies will be paid what they get paid by Medicare PLUS 5%.

 

4] The public plan will be bare bones kind of basic coverage, and you will have to qualify for it. Not everyone can even get it. If you make a lot of money you can't get it. The CBO estimates that the total amount of people that will be in the public plan, counting individuals PLUS employers who choose the public plan over the private plan, will be 11-12 million people. In other words, everyone who has private insurance now, plus TWO-THIRDS of all the new people getting insurance will still be in the private sector. 4-5% or so may be public.

 

*They also say it's very hard to judge how many people will actually go into the public plan but those are their figures now, and they think because it's not THAT much cheaper, and it is a government run bare bones plan, private insurers are going to lower their private rates, and you have to qualify, they arent going to be huge numbers.

 

5] The government is not going to tell these private insurers after they have made their plans what they can and can't do. There are no panels to decide if you get this or that treatment. The government sets the guidelines beforehand, the private insurers offer them, you and me get to see whether Public Plan A or B from Cigna is better for us than Private Plan A or B from Cigna based on the cost and services and that's it.

 

http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=10430

[DC Tom]

I don't even think people across the country know what the public plan is, how it works, who would go for it, how much it would cost, etc.

 

Basically it's this, and this is all according to the CBO evaluation of the House plan, which you can look at yourself below.

1] All kinds of private insurers, the ones that already exist, will be able to offer private plans in this "exchange". All that is is a list of plans you can access online and shop from like amazon.com. There will be all kinds of plans from bare bones to gold-plated plans.

 

2] One option on that exchange will include "The Public Plan". Those exact same private companies are going to offer their versions of "the public plan" and you can see how much it's going to cost and what they offer. These private companies have their option of whether they want to offer a "public plan" or not. The CBO says most will because of all the new people who will be buying insurance.

 

3] The public plans must follow pre-determined government guidelines on payments and basic services. The private companies will be paid less for their services but it will only be 10% than they get now for their private services, according to the CBO. The private companies will be paid what they get paid by Medicare PLUS 5%.

 

4] The public plan will be bare bones kind of basic coverage, and you will have to qualify for it. Not everyone can even get it. If you make a lot of money you can't get it. The CBO estimates that the total amount of people that will be in the public plan, counting individuals PLUS employers who choose the public plan over the private plan, will be 11-12 million people. In other words, everyone who has private insurance now, plus TWO-THIRDS of all the new people getting insurance will still be in the private sector. 4-5% or so may be public.

 

*They also say it's very hard to judge how many people will actually go into the public plan but those are their figures now, and they think because it's not THAT much cheaper, and it is a government run bare bones plan, private insurers are going to lower their private rates, and you have to qualify, they arent going to be huge numbers.

 

5] The government is not going to tell these private insurers after they have made their plans what they can and can't do. There are no panels to decide if you get this or that treatment. The government sets the guidelines beforehand, the private insurers offer them, you and me get to see whether Public Plan A or B from Cigna is better for us than Private Plan A or B from Cigna based on the cost and services and that's it.

 

http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=10430

 

 

For which we get three new departments, two trust funds, two commissioners, an ombudsman, and a czar (and that's what I found in a ten-minute scan of the document.)

 

But this'll reduce costs. Sure.

[ThereIsNoDog]

For which we get three new departments, two trust funds, two commissioners, an ombudsman, and a czar (and that's what I found in a ten-minute scan of the document.)

 

But this'll reduce costs. Sure.

...and improve quality, and patient satisfaction, and ensure everyone's good health, and...

[/dev/null]

For which we get three new departments, two trust funds, two commissioners, an ombudsman, and a czar

 

Plus 3 french hens, 2 turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree