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Employers Offering ‘Skinny’ Coverage to Avoid High Obamacare Fines

By C. J. Refsland on May 23, 2013 • ( 0 )

Basics such as X-rays will not be covered under many employers’ minimal-coverage healthcare plans.

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Some companies are avoiding Obamacare penalties by offering “skinny” insurance plans that provide employees with minimum coverage such as preventive care but little else, including benefits to help cover hospitals stays.

Minimum coverage qualifies as acceptable under the new healthcare-reform law, so benefit advisers and insurance brokers are pitching minimum plans nationally, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Employers are recognizing they can avoid a $2,000-per-worker penalty by providing such policies, even though the plans often don’t cover basics such as surgery, X-rays, or prenatal care, let alone hospitalization.

The employers still could face penalties, but they expect them to be less than the the $2,000 per worker for opting out of Obamacare. As a result, the Journal reported, more companies are seeking minimum-coverage plans and creating what amounts to a new industry of basic-insurance brokers and benefit administrators pushing the plans to clients.

Some low-benefit plans will cost employers as little as $40 to $100 per employee monthly, the Journal noted.

“For certain organizations, it may be an ideal solution to minimize the cost of opting out,” David Ellis, chief executive of Youngtown, Ariz.-based LifeStream Complete Senior Living, told the Journal.

via Employers Offering ‘Skinny’ Coverage to Avoid High Obamacare Fines.

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Won’t Cover Surgery, Hospital Stays, Prenatal Care…