Health care law raises questions
Starting Tuesday, businesses and the public can begin signing up for heath care insurance under the Affordable Care Act, known as “ObamaCare,” at online exchange marketplaces.
Here are comments by officials from a variety of businesses, agencies and organizations about the new health care law.
2 manufacturersJim McKain, human resources manager for Penn United Technologies, said the Affordable Care Act has not affected the way the company does business, but the law has increased the company's administrative burden to ensure it remains compliant. The law also has tacked on extra taxes.The precision manufacturer in Jefferson Township employs about 580 and offers a health plan that includes health, prescription, dental, vision and hearing coverage. It offers a wellness program and an employee assistance program.Employees also may buy their life insurance and short-and long-term disability insurance through the company.McKain said Penn United has gotten the word out about national health care reform to its employees through meetings, mailings and the company's intranet website.He said few workers have had concerns because the company's coverage is better than what will be offered through the insurance exchanges. He also speculated Penn United's plan would be cheaper than those offered on exchanges, based on prices announced by other states.“Based on what the experts all tell us, and by the pricing we see from a few of the state exchanges, the cost could be several thousand dollars a year more for less coverage than we currently offer our employees,” he said.However, along with the increased burden on administrators and the costs to ensure compliance, McKain said the law has added additional taxes.“The plan has added costs in the form of new taxes imposed on us for every employee, spouse and dependent covered in our plan. This is in addition to the additional claims costs from the changes we have had to make.”One of the taxes, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Fee, is very minor, he said. It is $1 multiplied by the average number of plan members for a business.At Penn United, there are about 1,350 plan members, so this year's tax, which was due July 31, only cost the company about $1,350. However, McKain said that tax is scheduled to increase to $2 per plan member in 2014 and remain at $2 per plan member plus an inflation adjustment for 2015.He said a more significant new tax is the Transitional Reinsurance Fee, which will be due Nov. 15, 2014.The cost of that tax will be $63 multiplied by the average number of plan members, which will come to about $85,000 for Penn United.For smaller businesses, there are additional factors to consider.“The ObamaCare law is actually getting me to consider not offering employer insurance anymore,” said Fred Hensel, owner of Testing Solutions in Middlesex Township.With fewer than 50 employees, the pipe testing equipment designer and manufacturer is not required to offer health care coverage under the new law.However, like many small businesses, it has done so in the past because it is the right thing to do and it is an added benefit to employees.Despite potential cost savings to end insurance, the company will continue to offer health care coverage.Hensel said dealing with insurance companies can be frustrating enough, and he voiced concern over how having more government bureaucrats involved will complicate matters.“We need to get back to individual responsibility — paying for our needs ourselves and relying on charitable entities to help those in need, not government force at gunpoint,” he said.
Cece Foster, executive director at the Community Health Clinic of Butler County, said “Clinics such as ours, the community health clinic, we really think that we will continue to be business as usual.“And I say that because even though the Affordable Care Act is to make health care accessible to everyone in the country, it's not necessarily going to be available to everybody in the country because the guidelines are 138 percent of the federal poverty level (for a government subsidy), and our guidelines are 200 percent of the poverty level.“So there's already a pocket of people who potentially could qualify for our services, that under the Affordable Care Act, would not.Foster has concerns about businesses letting go of full-time workers for whom they would be required to have company insurance and replacing them with part-time people, who wouldn't have any insurance requirements.She said she thinks this will probably become more common.Foster also said, “One of the big drawbacks as an administrator that I see is, is the Affordable Care Act actually affordable? And if it was, wouldn't our population here at the community health clinic, which has a very strict eligibility screening, wouldn't they already be willing to purchase their own health insurance?”Looking to the future Foster said, “I predict that we'll see an influx of new patients because they're going to realize that they qualify for our services here ... If anything, the Affordable Care Act will filter out patients who can truly benefit from the services from volunteer medicine clinics such as ours.”She is concerned about the lack of information getting to the public about the law.“It's an overwhelming task to think people are going to be ready, and let alone, have accurate information,” she said.<B>Butler Health System</B>Anne Krebs, chief financial officer at Butler Health System, said staff members are educating themselves as much as they can.But she said, “There's just a lot of questions out there. There's more questions than answers, so we've been working from some of our various plans to understand.“We will have financial counselors that will be able to help our patients, just like we do now. We help them with Medicaid enrollment and any issues they might have now, so there will be additional options available come October.”She said, “So we're just trying to educate ourselves on the different choices, and we'll go from there. We're not quite sure how it'll all work when it's said and done. We know how it's supposed to work, but we'll see if it actually works that way.<B>VA Butler Healthcare</B>In a statement, Ken Kalberer, health systems specialist at VA Butler Healthcare, said, “Veterans who are enrolled in VA health care need not do anything further to comply with the Affordable Health Care Act and continue to receive care at VA.“We also encourage all veterans who do not have health insurance and who are not enrolled in VA health care to enroll. Doing so will fulfill the requirement of the Act and they would not need to purchase any other health care insurance.”<B>Area Agency on Aging</B>The Area Agency on Aging will not be affected by the new health care law.“Our target population are Medicare beneficiaries,” said Renee Hewitt, a health insurance coordinator with the agency. “The Affordable Care Act won't impact Medicare beneficiaries.”Hewitt said the agency has been making sure seniors know there won't be any changes to them from what they see on the news.“We're telling the people we deal with that they will continue using the system they've been using for years,” she said.<B>Butler Downtown</B>Chelynne Curci, the Main Street manager for Butler Downtown, said her organization is looking into hosting a seminar for small businesses.“We would like to schedule one soon,” she said. “We talked about doing one in June, but thought people would be too busy and we wouldn't have great attendance. So we decided fall would be better.”Curci said it would be important to provide some information for business owners.“It's different for small business owners than it is for large corporations,” Curci said. “Business owners need to be educated, and many don't have time to keep up on all the laws going through.”She added, “We actually haven't heard too much buzz about it. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. But we do think it will be important for small business owners to learn about it.”<B>Butler County COG</B>The Butler County Council of Governments is feeling some negative effects of the new health care act.The COG is an association of townships and boroughs that works to reduce costs and provide better municipal government services.The Butler County COG is a member of a COG Care program, which has 17 COGs and 80 municipalities.“In Butler County, Harmony and Mars boroughs as well as Washington Township participate in COG Care,” said Jeff Smith, the executive director of the Butler County COG and president of COG Care.COG Care provides low-cost health insurance to municipalities, according to Smith.The program offers two key advantages for members.“The first was that it offered a 4 percent discount to members and the second was that it had guarantees that rates could not increase more than 15 percent a year,” Smith said.But under the new health care reform, Smith said, “UPMC is no longer permitted to offer COG Care members the upfront discounts or the future rate guarantee, the two key benefits of COG Care. Clearly, health care reform does not have any real positive impacts on COG Care in the future.”Smith said while COG Care has to follow the new rules, officials are working to find new ideas to offer members.“Because of COG Care's past success, I am confident that we will refine it and continue to offer value to our municipal members,” Smith said.<B>Farm Service Agency</B>Luke Fritz, executive director of the Butler County Farm Service Agency, said that the agency has not hosted any seminars and likely will not.“I don't think anyone knows what the impact is yet,” Fritz said.He said not many farmers have spoken to him about the law, but there are a few who have.“Guys that have employees are concerned,” Fritz said, saying that they are worried about potential additional costs.
