Be ready for a big shock from Healthcare Deformity

As the realities of ACA become clear, the impact on employers will be staggering in two ways:

Increase cost of premiums.  There is nothing in ACA that helps to reduce the overall cost to employers or to employees.  In fact, we believe that employee-only premium will be an average of $600 per month with dramatic increases to young and healthy individuals.  The least expensive option available under ACA is the Bronze plan, which could be $20,000 per year for a family.

Daunting record keeping. An employer with over 50 FTEs will be required to monitor which employees are eligible to participate in the health insurance offering.  Aggregating all hours worked to calculate FTEs (full time equivalents) and establishing a look-back period for the monitoring of the same will require the need to be able to get data from your HRMS system for documenting this process.

More good news for small companies
Even though a company with less than 50 FTEs is exempted from the law, all companies regardless of size will be subject to the premium increases due to mandated plan designs of ACA.  And don't think you can escape being a plan sponsor if you decide one of the exchanges is right for you.  Securing health insurance through an exchange creates a whole new set of requirements for plan documents and disclosures.

Yet to be determined
ACA will evolve over the next year even more.  There are about 1800 rules yet-to-be-written by more government appointees.  So, hold on to your belt and tie your shoes tight!