Affordable Health Care Law

[sanantone]

Not at all for me as an employee. I work for a large'ish company that's pretty employee-friendly. They're absorbing the employer expenses rather than passing them on in premium increases, and our three offered policy options already met (and far surpassed) all the standards set by the Act. Our premiums will go up 5% on Jan. 1, which is pretty standard from year to year. The policy itself is largely unchanged (only one change that comes to mind, and it works in our favor for a policy improvement).

As the HR rep at my location, I've fielded approximately 5,482,912 questions from our employees who were confused by literature received in the mail that made them think they HAD to go sign up at Healthcare.gov, so it's been a pain in my tush explaining 5,482,912 times and mentioning 12 times in our various Open Enrollment meetings that they only need to do that if they a) have waived our coverage and are not covered elsewhere, or b) want to shop alternatives (of which our policy is considerably cheaper and better than what's offered on the Exchange).

I thought that if someone has an employer that offers insurance, that person can't go on the exchange unless the employer's insurance is deemed unaffordable (over 9.5% of annual earnings). Or, does that only apply to receiving subsidies to purchase on the exchange?

I saw my company's insurance rates from this past year and the coming year. There was only one minor change. Our insurance rates are about the same.