Well, is your head spinning yet with all of the crazy mandates for larger companies and the health plans they are mandated to have? Any company that is over 100 combined full and part time employees, was supposed to have Health Insurance for large companies in place by January 1, 2014. The companies that have between 50-99 employees are mandated to have the same coverage in place by January 2016. Now that we’ve said that, there are some requirements for just what kind of coverage is considered affordable
What is considered affordable coverage for an employee
Affordable coverage, as defined by the ACA, Affordable Care Act, is a plan that an employee does not pay more than 9.5% of their wages towards each month. It does not matter what the “family” is making…the 9.5% is determined from the individual employee of that company. What is happening is that many of the employees do not believe that 9.5% is affordable for them. If you have employees that are making $15-$20 an hour, they don’t want $5 taken out of their check. Never mind the $130 or so that would be the 9.5%. So what’s happening is that employers are making the offer of coverage and employees are turning it down. The second piece of all of this is that the coverage is deemed MEC, or Minimum Essential Coverage.
What exactly is MEC and how does that affect me
MEC is the term for Minimum Essential Coverage. That means that a credible MEC plan is one that has all of the necessary elements as stated by the Affordable Care Act. embedded in each plan. Preventative services, drug coverage, etc… If an employer is offering a plan that does not have the MEC, they are not complying with ObamaCare. The law dissected healthcare and came up with certain services they felt needed to be covered for children and adults. To be a MEC plan, those services have to be satisfied.
If you have MEC coverage and its affordable, you don’t qualify for a subsidy on Covered CA
Many people are under the impression that they qualify for a subsidy, when in fact, they don’t. According to the government, they are hundreds of thousands of people that will be required to pay some or all of the money back. That would suck for someone to think they are all good with their subsidy, only to find out that they have a huge bill on April 15th.