Allen Roberts, a Member of Firm in the Labor and Employment practice and co-chair of the firm's Whistleblowing and Compliance Subpractice Group, in the New York office, wrote an article about the five topics which will impact employers in 2013 and beyond.
Following is an excerpt:
By popular account, the Affordable Care Act ("ACA") would preserve the base of insureds and extend health insurance coverage to as many as another 32 million Americans. That estimate could be wrong if ACA disrupts patterns and experience of spouse and dependent coverage on employer-paid policies. Much of the political and media comment has focused on mandates, exchanges, and reasons that employers may maneuver to satisfy requirements concerning employee coverage, or drop it completely. Left out of the discussion has been the cost of covering family members of employees and the opportunity to shift employer dollars away from spouse and dependent premiums and place more dollars in premiums for individual employees. If that happens, spouses and dependent children will receive insurance coverage under employer-provided plans only if their premiums are paid by the employee, a household member, or some third party. Otherwise, those family members must obtain insurance elsewhere or join the ranks of the uninsured, something that might have been unimaginable for many of them—and perhaps for advocates of ACA who have considered it a move towards universal health care coverage.
