Benefit plan design

Small businesses won’t be able to enroll in new online health insurance marketplaces until Nov. 1 in most U.S. states, the latest delay for the Obama administration’s signature health care law.

Benefit Advisors Network partners with Liazon; traction may take time.

Largely lost in the furor have been the ways in which employers could potentially benefit from the ACA and the launch of the new public health insurance exchanges, starting six days from now on October 1.

In effect, the ACA’s biggest promise becomes its most formidable challenge: unprecedented access to care for a needy population when the nation is already grappling with overtaxed emergency rooms and a shortage of physicians.

Health insurance under the Affordable Care Act will cost individuals at least $2,988 a year on average, a price that Republican opponents may target as out-of-reach for many Americans who don’t qualify for U.S. subsidies.

The calculator that determines subsidies for the 36 states relying on the federal government for exchanges come Oct. 1 isn’t working in tests, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The four-year slowdown in U.S. health care spending will end next year, and there is no sign the Affordable Care Act will significantly curb the acceleration in costs, government actuaries said in a report.

In one of the biggest steps for private health care exchanges so far, Aon Hewitt has announced that it will be offering health benefits for more than 330,000 American employees of some well-known companies, including Walgreens, Sears Holdings and Darden Restaurants – parent company of Red Lobster and the Olive Garden.

At 2 p.m. ET on Oct. 2, EBN and EBA will offer a web seminar on issues relating to ACA implementation and what they mean for employers – whether or not they plan having their workers participate in ACA marketplaces.

For those who have taken the time to read through the model exchange notices recently released by the Department of Labor you may have noticed some glaring issues with the questions, writes UBA CEO Thom Mangan, who helps provide some clarity.

As long as retirees enroll with the private insurance exchange, IBM will subsidize their health care premiums at a similar level, the company says.

The cost of ‘Obamacare,’ “is much more sensitive than people previously appreciated” to employers’ decisions to drop coverage, says Jay Bhattacharya, an economist and Stanford associate professor of medicine.

At Tuesday’s ACA “pulse check” on Capitol Hill, four contractors gave the U.S. House of Representatives their take on exchange preparedness just three weeks until opening.

Altered by the ACA, limited medical plans may actually increase in popularity for some workers.

A 25-year-old New Yorker earning $25,000 a year will pay as little as $62 a month for health insurance next year, and a peer living in Vermont may pay nothing, according to a 17-state survey of premiums under the U.S. health care overhaul.

A recent delay on out-of-pocket spending could be complicated for those who think they have a single-vendor system, should their health care provider and pharmacy be considered separate internally.

A recent delay on out-of-pocket spending could be complicated for those who think they have a single-vendor system, should their health care provider and pharmacy be considered separate internally.

In response to Monday's legal reminder about the Oct. 1 ACA employee communications, we’re bringing you more information on the requirements.

Employer mandate delay puts pressure on Congress.

United Parcel Service Inc.’s decision to drop health benefits for 15,000 of its workers’ spouses may be a sign of the future, as U.S. businesses grapple with rising medical bills and the added burdens of the ACA.