Employers face big decisions on Obamacare

Rules governing the federal health care law’s employer mandate have been released in recent weeks. Mike Bertaut, a health care economist with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, walked the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge through the basics today. Put very simply, any business with 50 employees working 30 hours a week or more is subject to the mandate. Companies have one of three options: Offer a health insurance policy that meets federal guidelines, offer coverage that doesn’t quite meet the requirements and risk some fines for employees who “leak” to the insurance exchanges that some states (not Louisiana) and the federal government are setting up, or offer no coverage and pay $2,000 per employee per year for every employee minus the first 30. The fines will not be tax-deductible business expenses. While some companies will choose to simply pay the fines and be done with it, Bertaut suggests employees might not be happy to learn their employer chose to send a big check to the government rather than provide health insurance. While employers must also offer coverage to children of their employees under the law, they don’t have to offer it to spouses or subsidize the coverage for the children. Blue Cross CEO Mike Reitz also spoke today. “The elections are over, and the game is on,” he said. —David Jacobs