Keep the coverage you like, no problem.
Make sure employers don’t drop health insurance coverage because of the burden created by PPACA thereby making the President look bad, no problem.
All you have to do is exempt their plans from an offending section of the law, no problem. Turning up the heat
Thirty employers covering about a million people have received exemption from the provision of PPACA raising benefit limits. There is, of course, logic in this decision.
The real concern is that we have a massive patchwork law with many unintended consequences that require exemptions, waivers, delays in implementation and regulatory changes. That should tell you something about where this law is leading us.
In some cases PPACA is directly leading to employers cutting benefits or seeking was to eliminate them, but in a broader sense the law is changing the environment for employer-based coverage both for active employees and for retirees who are fortunate to have employer coverage. That is because employers are abler to use the law and its uncertainties as an excuse to make changes they wanted to make all along.
In other words, on some real level PPACA is providing cover to those employers who made promises that have become inconvenient so they simply abandon them. Recently, Honeywell sent its retirees a letter announcing new health plan options available in 2011. Retirees were invited to meetings, but when the meeting started, no Honeywell representatives were present, rather a third-party was there to explain all the new options and the assistance this group would provide helping retirees make a selection from the new options. Honeywell is dropping it s retiree coverage and eliminating any financial support it was providing. In other words, the retirees are on their own to select and pay for their health benefit coverage.
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