Can anyone please help explain exactly how two provisions in the health plan work?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/25/he...ployer.html?hp
The first is on Cadilac plan costs. It sounds like if anyone on a compay's payroll is over the limit, which will vary by status (single, married, family, etc., the company is liable for payong the tax. If so, then this happens:
"If the excise tax survives the House-Senate negotiations, it is hard to predict how employers will respond. But almost two-thirds of the employers Mercer recently surveyed said they were likely to reduce employee benefits rather than pay the tax."
But does this mean that a company now would discriminate on some who are paying higher costs because their family is larger by tweaking the numbers to make sure they pay no added taxes. How does this work? Could everyone's health care be affected so no one in the company falls into the Cadilac plan number? Has anyone thought this through? Doesn't this discourage new hiring?
And then the article talked about the fact that a company with younger employees health care costs would go up since they would have to subsidize older workers in other companies and uninsured people. How exactly does that work? It is probably the companies with younger employees who are the high tech driver of the economic engine. So why hurt them?
How about portability? Just how does that little detail worK? If I am a young person in a young person's company who now goes to work in a company with an older population, does that mean that my insurance costs may go down and who figures that little detail out? And what about the reverse situation - older going to younger company population?
And while on portability, how does that work? If I am in a larger company that has mandated health care and go to a smaller company who is so small that the rules do not apply, does that person get health coverage? If so, how does that work and who pays?
Theories are great, but it is the small business owner who is left to figure out all of these "little" details. Companies need answers. Who can explain how this works?
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