They offer a very rich plan design (Platinumesque) and until October of 2010 they paid 100% of the premiums. Back then the company was spending $100,164. With a tough economy the owner made a difficult but necessary decision: employees would have to pay a portion of their premiums. They were asked to contribute 10% of the premium. Now they pay 15% of the premium.You might be asking yourself, how is this employer an Obamacare winner? How are his employees winning? Allow me to explain.
In Ohio insurers are allowed to offer an "Extended Transition to Affordable Care Act-Compliant Policies." This is a DELAY in the law extended by CMS (after Obama promised you could) allowing people and small employers to keep their plans until they renew in 2016. Then this employer will be forced into community rated products with strict benefit mandates that must fall within narrow parameters at the renewal in October of 2016.
Why didn't we move them into an Obamacare compliant plan? They could have. In fact we did our diligence exploring various insurers in the market. There were several options to choose from. They would have had a different plan design but it would have been very similar to the actuarial value of their current plan. But doing that would have cost the company $224,928.
13% increases are unacceptable by Obamacare standards. For this company it will cost them $16,824 more this year than last year. That is a tough pill to swallow. But, words can't describe the pain from the $95,244 suppository had the company been forced into an Obamacare compliant plan - which is exactly what is going to happen in 2016.