Posted by Andy Gregory on Mon, Mar 22, 2010 @ 02:13 PM
After an historic partisan rumble culminated in a vote late last night, health care reform is on the horizon as either a storm, or as sunshine depending on personal viewpoints. Once President Obama signs the bill, it will head back to the senate where it is expected to be approved. What will this mean for Massachusetts?
To start, employers will not be required to offer health insurance, but will face penalties starting in 2014 if low and middle-income workers use federal subsidies to buy insurance.
Companies that employ more than fifty workers will be penalized if they do not offer health care coverage or if any of their employees use federal subsidies to buy insurance. The penalty will be $2,000 for each employee starting at employee 31 and beyond. For example, an employer with 60 employees would pay a $58,000 fine (29 employees x $2,000).
Employers who do offer health care coverage would be required to provide vouchers in the amount of the portion that they would have paid for low and middle-employees so they can obtain coverage through the subsidies. This would waive the penalties for employees using the subsidies for coverage. Employees with incomes up to 400% of the federal poverty level, which works out to $88,200 for a family of four, would be eligible for vouchers if they spend between 8 and 9.8 percent of their income on health care premiums.
The bill will provide tax credits starting this year to small businesses that want to provide health care coverage for employees and will also subsidize employer plans that cover early retirees aged 55-64.
Stay tuned, as this is just the beginning of a very long journey.