On 10-7-2015 the White House Office of the Press Secretary released the following statement:
On Wednesday, October 7, 2015, the President signed into law:
H.R. 1624, the "Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees Act," which re-categorizes businesses with 51 to 100 employees from the Affordable Care Act's "small employer" designation to its "large employer" designation, ......
This means the federal small group definition will continue to be groups with 2-50 employees and will not include groups 51-100. States can choose to implement this on a state-based threshold on their own but with the basic failures of MNsure in Minnesota, it is not anticipated that Minnesota will change the federal definition.
Employer impact for Jan.1, 2016
- Clients originally moving to small group on Jan. 1, 2016 who are 51-100 employees will now remain large group
- Most importantly these groups will not be community rated as will groups of 2-50 employees. This means 50% of those groups that had reasonable rates in the past due to good claims experience will not be mixed in with those groups who did not, and they will not experience an unwarranted rate increase
We expect continued changes in this law over the next 24-36 months. There will be continued effort to change or defeat ACA legislatively and should the current majority retain its position in the federal House and Senate, and the country elects a President in favor of further changes to this law, we haven't seen the last of these announcements. As I am sure most of you feel, this has been a trying last 4 years and the desire that this law will be finally settled one way or another going forward, provides some sense of hope.
We will make every effort to keep you updated as to future changes and we are here for you should you have questions or concerns.
