Employer Based Health Insurance

[steveadlman]

I do not sell individual or group health. My question is why don't we get away from employer based health insurance and leave it up to each individual to purchase their own health insurance. We purchase our own auto and homeowners insurance without involving our employer.

 

[Yagents]

The unintended (or maybe intended) consequence of this law, is it will cause further erosion of employer based insurance. Now that we have guarantee issue, there is no reason for group coverage except for the employer contribution that can be returned via higher pay or retirement plan contributions

 

[somarco]

Now that we have guarantee issue, there is no reason for group coverage except for the employer contribution that can be returned via higher pay or retirement plan contributions

Something like half a dozen states have GI or something similar (carrier of last resort) yet group insurance is not obsolete in those states.

GI is a game changer but does not eliminate the group incentive.

 

[bluemarlin08]

Group insurance is pretax individual coverage is after tax.

 

[somarco]

Group insurance is pretax

It is right now for the employer, but watch for that to go away or be restricted in a few years.

Premiums can be pre-tax for employees if the employer has a 125 plan.

 

[stuy119]

The unintended (or maybe intended) consequence of this law, is it will cause further erosion of employer based insurance. Now that we have guarantee issue, there is no reason for group coverage except for the employer contribution that can be returned via higher pay or retirement plan contributions

And that higher pay gets taxed (most likely), both on the employer and employee side.

But additionally, the employer then has to pay work comp insurance premiums on the additional income paid to employees.

It also needs to be considered that subsidies may decrease as take-home pay go up, defeating the purpose of the raise in the first place for the employee.

Needless to say, there are many things to consider on this angle. My personal thought is that the law was written and is being implemented as a way to destroy the employer-based benefit of health insurance.

 

[houcoogster]

I agree they want to do away with the employer based health insurance model.
There are many economic inefficiencies with it. WWII is over lets move on already.
People need to work where they can maximize their contributions to the economy not where they have a lower copay. They shouldn't have even put in the law an employer penalty. The individual mandate should have been good enough. Employers have enough to worry about with competition from here and abroad they shouldn't have to be health benefit administrators/paralegals.