If you are an employer with between 50-99 employees, as it stands right now, you will have to offer Health Insurance to them beginning in January 2016. Here’s what’s going on in the industry right now; lawmakers are trying to slow down the implementation of this part of the ACA, not sure if they will be successful or not. Right now, any employer group over 50 employees that wants to offer coverage, can get what they call a “composite” rate. This means that if you are 30 or 64, your employee only price is the same. Its a debate whether that is a good thing or not. The insurance company comes up with the rate after considering the demographics of the group. Beginning in January 2016, everyone will be “age rated”. 20 somethings will be cheap and over 40 will be expensive. This is because the ACA mandates that groups 1-100 will be considered in the small group sector in 2016.
Small group Health Insurance changing in January 2016
Because of ObamaCare mandates, groups from 1 employee up to 100 will be considered a small group. That means that new underwriting rules apply as well as the rating system. Oh yes, one more thing…..the employee will be rated on their age, their spouse’s age and the first 3 children will be rated. For me, this will change my rates from about $1100 a month for a Kaiser plan, to almost $1700, overnight. The pre-ObamaCare rates were that if you were a family of 4 or 8, the price was the family price, that all changed with ObamaCare.
Rating changes for groups with the ACA and ObamaCare
If you are a small employer and you’ve delayed the implementation of the ACA compliant plans, stand by. Some of our groups have experienced, up to a 100% increase. That was the max, but still, the pricing has skyrocketed. Most groups are looking at about a 20-40% increase, depending on the plan and the demographics of the group. The groups with more dependent children have risen sharply. Its a total sticker shock and people are angry. So much for the ACA and lowering prices. There have been some important changes, granted, but until we control the cost of healthcare, the insurance will continue to rise