After the unexpected results of the presidential election many employers and employees are wondering what’s going to happen with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare.
Depending on how it has affected you personally, you may be either relieved or scared that it will be repealed. So what’s likely to happen?
Here is a summary of what the Society of Human Resources Management (SHRM) -a Washington based association of HR professionals- is telling us to expect.
Even though Republicans retained a majority and have vowed to repeal and replace the ACA, they are lacking a supermajority of 60 votes needed for a full repeal. So it’s more likely that they’ll negotiate with Democrats to change the law. SHRM is expecting substantial changes to the law, but they consider a full repeal unlikely.
What’s likely NOT to change? Many Republicans actually support keeping some parts of the ACA that are popular with Americans. These include allowing children to stay on their parent’s plans until age 26, and not allowing denial of coverage based on pre-existing conditions.
So what’s likely to change? The employer and individual mandate.
Many Democrats have indicated they might be willing to relax the employer mandate by changing the definition of which employees are entitled to employer-provided coverage (for example defining fulltime as 40 hours, not the current 30 hours) and reducing the amount of reporting, tracking and other administrative burdens. These are unpopular and have been an enormous and costly compliance burden for many employers.
Democrats are also open to modifying the individual mandate (every American having to buy insurance or pay a “fine” or “tax”) since it’s unclear whether it has failed to encourage people (especially younger, healthier ones) to buy health insurance.
SHRM thinks there may be enough bipartisan agreement on some of these to reach 60 votes or avoid a nasty fight.
Whatever changes might be coming it could take months or years. So in the meantime, Obamacare is still the law of the land and employers should continue reporting as they always have including those Forms 1095-C which in 2017 are due to employees on January 31st.
©Copyright Eva Del Rio
Eva Del Rio is creator of HR Box™ – tools for small businesses and startups. Send questions to Eva@evadelrio.com
