Compliance with Obama care

[hackitdown]

Originally Posted by Duekster

If you do that, you should ear mark it as payments there are some initial tax credits you get to help your company transition to paying the extra for health insurance.

Yes, I looked into it, you are right. In Mass. I can either set up a "Section 125 health savings account", or just set up a plan to offer insurance through the Exchange. Either way would be less expensive than just paying him more.

So I took a shot at setting up a plan. It took about 10 minutes to set it up, and there are about 40 plans to choose from. The least expensive was about $220/month. So if I pay 1/2, it would be $110 from me. And then I get a portion of that cost back as a tax credit. I think this is the way to go.

This will be my employee's "raise" this year. It amounts to around 75 cents per hour, I think.

[Roger]

I saw/heard a report today that manufacturers cut investment spending on equipment by 50% in Q2, with large drops in Oct and Nov. Why? Uncertainty (fiscal cliff, taxes, and health care costs).

There is no way the economy can ever get growing soon because of all the fluidity in US policy that floats around DC. No pointing at any party, because the Exec branch, and both houses of Congress must be in concert on these matters, to gain confidence again.

The other part of the story is that the cash reserves continue to build. The question is how will those reserves be drawn down, ... productive paths, or overhead?

[DA Quality Lawn & YS]

Any way you slice it, that piece of work legislation is going to hurt small biz one way or another. Thanks Big O.

[Roger]

Originally Posted by DA Quality Lawn & YS

Any way you slice it, that piece of work legislation is going to hurt small biz one way or another. Thanks Big O.

Wrong tense. The impact has already been made, and we've not yet reached much of the implementation.

Some governors met with President Obama today (yesterday?). One piece of news from the meeting is that 27 states are not planning to implement the exchanges. The fallback position is a Federal exchange. However, the legislation has no provision for the Federal operation of the exchanges. There is no money appropriated, no machinery in place, to establish the exchanges or manage them afterwards. Some are suggesting this part of the legislation will end up at the Supreme Court for a ruling.

[Duekster]

Originally Posted by Roger

Wrong tense. The impact has already been made, and we've not yet reached much of the implementation.

Some governors met with President Obama today (yesterday?). One piece of news from the meeting is that 27 states are not planning to implement the exchanges. The fallback position is a Federal exchange. However, the legislation has no provision for the Federal operation of the exchanges. There is no money appropriated, no machinery in place, to establish the exchanges or manage them afterwards. Some are suggesting this part of the legislation will end up at the Supreme Court for a ruling.

It will be interesting to see if the exchages actually reduce cost? I live in one of those red states.

[hackitdown]

Originally Posted by Duekster

It will be interesting to see if the exchages actually reduce cost? I live in one of those red states.

We have had the mandate (and an exchange) in Massachusetts for 6 years, per Governor Romney's plan. It has not decreased insurance costs, but it hasn't increased them either. The net result so far is 98% of Mass residents now have health insurance. The other 2% choose to pay a fine (maybe $250?). Mass has always been a high cost state for insurance anyhow. Business seem to be doing fine. The unemployment rate is better than average here. So the jury is out on impact to business.

The exchange does make it easy to shop for insurance. You fill out an online form, and you get back lots of insurance plan offers from all the insurance companies. They are all displayed side by side to make it easy to compare the deal. There is some security in knowing that all the plans on the exchange have met minimum guidelines set by the state...no scam policies.

It is online to try if anyone wants to test the real thing, see how it actually works:
https://www.mahealthconnector.org/portal/site/connector

I'd be curious to know if our prices are higher than what all you guys around the country are paying.

[Duekster]

That is part of the problem with "group" plans it the state sets minimums that includes a large bundle of services and thus pushes up the cost.

I would be more inclined to go with a high deductible plan and a HSA. Maybe include one physical with blood work but that is about all most young people need. Let them save some money in the HSA and shop services.

You would be surprised at how much savings you can get by shopping doctors services and paying cash.

[mikesturf]

Isn't it wonderful that all this time and energy is spent on trying to stay in compliance with new government regulations rather than acquiring new business.

[mikesturf]

Isn't it wonderful that all this time and energy is spent on trying to stay in compliance with new government regulations rather than acquiring new business.

[Duekster]

Originally Posted by mikesturf

Isn't it wonderful that all this time and energy is spent on trying to stay in compliance with new government regulations rather than acquiring new business.

There is a saying that most businesses fail in the first 3 years. Regulations and learning the legal side is often a large part of this.