Towards the end of July, the Republican Party made a couple of attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. When the Senate couldn’t pull together a consensus on a replacement bill, they moved forward with a straight repeal bill. Both attempts failed.
Where does that leave a business owner who’s trying to figure what to do about healthcare? Two recent articles help shed a little light on what to expect.
The Potential Future of Healthcare
According to a recent Forbes article, large employers will escape significant increases this year. They can expect something along the lines of the 5% average increases they’ve gotten the last several years. The expectation is that the 2018 renewals are where things will begin to implode.
Unfortunately, individuals on the exchanges will see significant increases as the exchanges have been collapsing for the last few years and states are scrambling to try and prop them up for this year. Couple that with the Trump administration’s uncertainty on whether to continue subsidies, and this could lead to another issue for employers.
If an employer is already offering healthcare, but excluding the part-time help (29 hours or less), they may see a push from those employees to be included in the group plan. Business owners will then have to decide what is best for the employees and for the business, but the situation could create some significant HR issues. Employee Benefits News lists this as one of the bigger issues arising from the uncertainty.
Lastly, no one is even certain how the IRS will respond to policy changes or how they will enforce them. The IRS already had issues collecting taxes on the uninsured in recent years and now have new potential hurdles.
Prepare Your Business for Changes in Healthcare
If your head is swimming from all of this and need help, or you’re simply looking for large group healthcare rates, consider reaching out to a Professional Employer Organization like GMS. We have a team of experts that can help you ride out these choppy waters, so contact us today to learn more about our group health coverage and other ways we can help your business.