2013
“There is a small increase in mandated benefits next year (from the ACA), but on the whole it is manageable,” says Tokar, who moderated the business alliance panel discussion. “It will add costs in the short-term and add challenges to already-strained health care budgets, but employers can usually find ways to manage the cost by restructuring their benefit plans. By taking pieces from different buckets, they can find ways to offset some or all of the costs of health-care reform.”
The NSBA survey found that 40 percent of businesses had increased deductible levels on health care coverage and 36 percent increased the share of the monthly premium employees pay. From The Gazette
Translation:
Employers can manage the cost simply by shifting costs to their workers either directly by lowering the employer contribution or simply by cutting benefits. Hey, making health care affordable is “manageable!”
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Reblogged this on AntiRadiation.
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My favorite is the DOL marketing effort titled “mythbuster”.
“Myth: If you already have insurance through your employer, health reform won’t benefit you.
Fact: The Affordable Care Act has many benefits for workers – even those who already have insurance. These include improved access to affordable preventive health services, coverage for children through the age of 26, increased protections against unfair premium increases, and a prohibition against denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions.”
All the while ignoring that either:
Employers shouldered the cost of these improvements, through increased contributions (likely dampening wage increases),
Employees shouldered the cost of these improvements through increased contributions, or
Employees shouldered the cost of these improvements through increased point of purchase cost sharing (deductibles, etc.).
You would think the government paid for these improvements… given the tone of the marketing effort.
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Excellent points, but should we be surprised? HHS and DOL have been talking like this for the last three years … and many people accept it on face value.
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