I
just spent 2 days attending the National Tax Conference. One of the
speakers was a specialist in health care reform. The more I learn about
the act the more confusing it is. Here are a few of his comments of the
unexpected outcome of the act that he thinks will come about as employers and
taxpayers become more aware of the act.
·
Many owners may consider transferring enough ownership to prevent
combination of entities into one “employer” for tax purposes. This will
help keep the employee number under 50 to avoid providing expensive insurance
for full time employees.
·
Many employers will increase the amount of self coverage
that they pay for, but may eliminate or substantially reduce family
coverage.
·
Because employers will be encouraged to keep employees under 30
hours, lower income workers will most likely need to work at least two jobs to
make a living. Therefore, these employees will need two jobs to
have a chance at making a living.
·
Many employers may eliminate health insurance coverage
completely. This will place these employees into the “public” exchange
plan. Employers will consider this since it may be substantially cheaper
to simply pay the penalty and adjust pay for upper level employees.
·
It is cheaper for employers to have younger employees to keep
their average premiums downs, so there will be an advantage to reduce the
number of older employees.
