IRS: Obamacare doesn’t require you [employers] to offer ‘affordable’ family coverage

Human Resources Bernefits Alert ^ | January 3, 2013 | Jared Bilski

[2ndDivisionVet]

After a barrage of guidance, the IRS finally published its proposed regs on the Affordable Care Act’s “Employer Shared Responsibility” provision, along with a practical Q&A with real-life examples for employers. Here’s help making sense of it all.

At this point, virtually every organization knows that all “large” employers — those with 50 or more full-time employees — must provide all full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) with health insurance or pay a “shared-responsibility” penalty.

Obamacare considers individuals who work at least 30 hours each week to be an FTE,

However, many employers will be surprised by at least one clarification the IRS offered regarding the shared-responsibility regs.

No guarantee for spouses, dependents

The clarification: While large employers are required to offer family coverage under the health reform law, they aren’t required to make it affordable, and they won’t be penalized if employees can’t afford the family coverage.

According to the IRS rules, the meaning of “affordable” hinges entirely on the healthcare costs for the employees — or “self-only coverage.”

Many employers had been under the assumption that the requirement to provide affordable coverage naturally extended to employees’ spouses and dependents...

[TurboZamboni]

Stats of the Week:
322 - new full-time equivalent workers requested by IRS for ACA compliance

$0 - funding from HHS for 2013 IRS “new worker” (FTE) request.

856 - full-time employees for which IRS received funding in 2012.

42 - provisions in ACA that will add to or amend tax code

10,000 - decrease in IRS employees over last two years.

$424 million - IRS enforcement revenue expected by 2015

http://healthenews.cchfreedom.org/newsletter.php/55

[green pastures]

bflr