Recently the Commonwealth Fund http://www.commonwealthfund.org/ reported: “ Many companies are changing their health benefits to try to avoid a tax slated to hit in 2018 on more generous insurance coverage, a survey found.
…The National Business Group on Health released results from a survey of 136 companies, most of which have more than 10,000 employees.
The survey found that almost a third, 32 percent of those surveyed, plan to offer high-deductible, or consumer driven, health plans. Only 22 percent have done so this year.
The companies polled expected to keep their cost increases to about 5 percent for 2015 by increasing the portion of costs paid directly by consumers, such as using high-deductible plans. That’s less than the 6.5 percent expected increase that the companies would expect if they made no such changes.
Companies are already looking at steps to avoid a 40 percent excise tax that starts in 2018. The so-called “Cadillac tax” was included in the health law (PL 111-148, PL 111-152) to raise revenue for its coverage expansion and is to be imposed in cases where the value of medical benefits crosses certain limits, in most cases $10,200 for individual coverage and $27,500 for family coverage.
To read the full Commonwealth Fund article “Companies Jockey to Avoid 2018 Tax on Health Plans” by Kerry Young, highlight and click on open hyperlink http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletters/washington-health-policy-in-review/2014/aug/aug-18-2014/companies-jockey-to-avoid-2018-tax-on-health-plans?omnicid=WHPR544093&mid=jonathanmetsch@optonline.net
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Jonathan M. Metsch, Dr.P.H., is Clinical Professor, Preventive Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; and Adjunct Professor, Baruch College ( C.U.N.Y.), Rutgers School of Public Health, and Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration
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