Health Plans Cut in Anticipation of Obamacare Penalties

Health Plans Cut in Anticipation of Obamacare Penalties (CNBC)

Large employers are increasing their employees’ healthcare costs — deductibles, copays, premiums and surcharges for family members eligible for coverage through other employers — in anticipation of higher costs associated with Obamacare. These costs include a $63 per-covered-person fee associated with creating a program to pool risk on the health insurance exchanges, as well as a 40% excise fee on health plans whose costs are too high on a per person or per family business in 2018. “I know we all have to work together to help each other, but sometimes they have these big ideas but they really don’t think about the little person, working really hard and each spouse working one job and we still can’t quite make it,” said Andrea Caulfield, whose employer more than doubled the employee premium for the 2014 plan year.