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The Affordable Care Act

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (together, the Affordable Care Act), was landmark legislation that dramatically affects how health care is delivered in the United States. Provisions of the legislation affect not only those directly involved in providing health care, but also most individuals and employers.

  • The health care reform legislation is extremely complex, and many items in the legislation change rules and regulations that were already in place. The IRS, Department of Labor (DOL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and other agencies have the monumental task of interpreting the legislation and providing guidance. Many temporary and proposed regulations, as well as some final regulations, have been issued.

  • The purpose of this legislation was to provide affordable minimum health care benefits to all individuals. With that in mind, the legislation provides for the establishment of qualified health plans that must provide essential health benefits consisting of minimum essential coverage.

  • Caution: Some of the rules originally enacted have already been repealed and the effective date of other rules has been modified. It is possible that more changes will occur as these rules are implemented. This information is current as of July 11, 2013

 

Employer Responsibility
  • Beginning in 2015, certain applicable large employers (i.e., generally those who had an average of at least 50 full-time employees in the previous calendar year) that do not offer health insurance coverage to their full-time employees (and their dependents), or employers that offer health insurance coverage that is unaffordable or does not provide a certain minimum value, must pay a penalty if the employer is notified that any full-time employee receives a premium assistance credit to purchase health insurance in the individual market through a state insurance exchange or a cost-sharing-reduction subsidy to help with out-of-pocket expenses. Any penalty paid under this provision is not deductible as a business expense for federal income tax purposes.

  • To determine if an employer is an applicable large employer, the full-time equivalent value of the hours worked by part-time employees must be calculated and added to the employer's number of full-time employees. This calculation can be challenging. Although part-time employees must be considered when determining applicable large employer status, applicable large employers only need to offer full-time employees (and their dependents) adequate health insurance coverage to avoid paying a penalty. However, the rules for determining full-time status can be complicated for certain variable-hour employees. Employers will be subject to many new notice and reporting requirements.

 

Individual Mandate for Health Coverage
  • The health care reform legislation requires most U.S. citizens and legal residents (i.e., applicable individuals) to have minimum essential health insurance coverage every month beginning on or after January 1, 2014. Those who do not have such health insurance will be subject to a penalty for each month they do not have minimum essential coverage. The penalty will be the greater of a flat fee amount (for each individual not covered by health insurance) or a percentage of household income over a threshold amount. For applicable individuals who are at least age 18, the maximum applicable annual dollar amount is for 2014, 5 for 2015, and 5 for 2016 and later years. An inflation adjustment will be applied in calendar years beginning after 2016. For individuals under age 18, the maximum applicable penalty is 50% of these amounts.

  • Individuals who meet certain financial or hardship criteria are exempt from the mandate. In addition, members of an Indian tribe and individuals who are members of certain religious sects or members of certain health care sharing ministries are exempt from the mandate.

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