Health Care Thoughts: The Deloitte Survey
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt
Update 7/26: The Deloitte link is working:
The annual employers survey by Deloitte (Big Four CPAs) has caused some buzz among us talking heads, although sadly drowned out by the tragedy in Colorado.
(As of this moment the download link is broken, apparently it was a popular download.)
Employers surveyed believe the US health system under performs, has some strengths in ability and access, is wasteful, employee lifestyles are a problem, and the system could be improved by investments in primary care.
Larger firms tend to be somewhat confident of coping with PPACA, smaller firms are not confident at all.
The headline finding is that 10% of employers are likely to dump employees onto state exchanges. My spin on this is the health of the labor market and the relative value of employees will be major decision factors come 2014.
Whatever happens in the November election, PPACA is not a done deal or finished project.
rusty,
Does the PPACA include any provision that requires a given business health plan to offer the same level of coverage for all employees from the execs on down? Exclude any provision which allows for variation in plan chosen based on direct cost to the employees. In other words can a business health care plan offer plans that are far more beneficial to the employee without such employees having to contribute more than a fixed amount that all contribute regardless of plan coverage.
Jack:
If one employee opts out of the company plan and goes to an exchange, the company must pay a penalty to the gov of $3000. In a way it behooves companys to offer valid plans.
In the exchanges, there will be different levels of plans which correspond to levels of deductible and responsibility (70, 80, 90% paid by the insurance) or bronze silver, gold, etc plans. It is expected that companies will mimic these levels.
In any case, these plans are still tax deductible which made them a favorite when coporate taxes were higher. At the same time coporations with < than 50 people are not held to the opt out rule for employees.
I appreciate your answer, but I wasn’t clear enough with my question. Simply put, can a corporation spend x on its average employee’s health care plan and 2x or 3x, etc. on the executive plans? I’m focusing on the cost paid by the employer, not the employee’s share. For that matter, can a corporation offer a plan the maybe equal but may cost different levels of employees varying amounts?
http://goo.gl/Vnh7q
Jack:
ERisa 1974, the Internal Revenue Code , PPACA and others put restrictions on employer health plans and discrimination.
There are plenty of non-qualified means of fattening execs though.
The PPACA employer rules are very complex and I have hopes of writing a plain English summary soon.
(sorry about the typing, traveling and using a new netbook – grrrr)
I’m wondering why the other specialists of this sector don’t realize this. You must proceed your writing. I’m confident, you’ve a great readers’ base already!
Employee Survey Questions