By October 1st employers are required by the Affordable Care Act to provide employees with a notice about the health insurance marketplace (exchanges). Following is a model notice. However, there is no penalty for not providing the notice.
You should note the paragraph referring to premium savings through the marketplace. Your employer is providing affordable coverage under the law if you are paying no more than 9.5% of household income for your coverage alone. That is for employee only coverage, not including dependents. In other words, the employer may be charging the employee 20% of premium plus 40% of premium for family members. As long as the 20% of premium (for single coverage) does not exceed 9.5% of household income, the employee may not receive a subsidy in an exchange even if being able to do so would mean a lower cost than what he pays to provide family coverage through the employer plan. Dependents may not receive a subsidy if coverage is offered even if it is not “affordable” under the law.
While employers with more than 50 employees must offer coverage to dependents, which does not include a spouse, there is no limit on what can be charged for dependent coverage. Gotcha!
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