40% Health Care Excise Tax

Basically what Kristen said:

Do you pay $11K or more for an individual plan? Do you pay $29K or more on a family plan? If you pay less than that per year then you won't be affected.

If you look closely enough, Mittens own plan for his state is nearly identical to "Obamacare" if I recall correctly. I may not, because I'm exhausted and in severe pain and therefore distracted big time right now. I also am trying to clean up after a messy supper and get my children up to bed.

I don't have the answer to your question, B.. I do know that I pay a lot of money for my medical benefits and have a $4000 family deductible, and I can afford it. I don't mind paying more so that the lower paid employees in the company can have coverage (the more money we make as an employee, the higher our premium, and it's deducted monthly from our paycheck.)

However, "Cadillac" health care is very high end. Perhaps what is really happening is that they are trying to level the playing field. In my case, we had 3 choices at the beginning of the year each year to decide on what we wanted with our healthcare. The choices varied as to what we paid monthly for coverage separately from what the company subsidized, and how high our deductible was. (The lower the deductible, the more we paid per month. There's more to it than that and it's a bit complicated, so I won't get into the nitty-gritty.) Though it's nice to have Cadillac care, it drains the system, and I will bet that this is what this is really about.

It's all well and good to harp on "Obamacare" over and over, but that's not really helpful. Before President Obama was even on the scene, MY health insurance had in-network agreements with hospitals and doctors that paid a pittance for procedures and care. (You'll find that out if you have to have surgery, B..) What you see on your Explanation of Benefits is a HUGE bill for services rendered from all points along the way to and from your procedure, and if it's in-network, there's a BIG write-off, with your portion either paid for by the insurance or applied to your deductible. With so many plans out there discounted by 80% here, 90% there, (specifically Cadillac plans), hospitals really don't make much and can't pay their people. So the regular Joe Blows plans are billed out the wazoo and regular people can't afford to go to the doctor even though they have insurance.

Until the House and Senate vote to put themselves on medical insurance that the rest of us have to have, the same-old same-old will continue to hurt all of us - pre-existing conditions and recision are the worst things about health insurance companies and they have said that without the law preventing them from doing this, they will continue. If hospitals didn't charge astronomical rates for everything and get pennies from only certain plans and try to make up for it on the backs of those less able to afford it, health care wouldn't continue to spiral out of control.

40% excise tax doesn't sound like a good way to level the playing field, but I would think that the best way to avoid that is not to sign up for the Cadillac version...

Dawn

The tax will be imposed if, in 2018, the total employee and employer shares of the premium--without dental and vision--exceed:

$10,200 for an individual plan
$27,500 for a family plan

The tax will be levied at a rate of 40% of the amount of the premium that exceeds these thresholds. For example, if the plan's individual premium is $11,000 in 2018, the plan will owe .4 X ($11,000-$10,200) = $320.

...

So, unless you have a very, very expensive plan, the change is probably going to be fairly modest. And you have 5+ years to plan for it.

Good luck to you and yours.

Hi! Cities and towns are currently struggling with their unions to eliminate "Cadillac" care from their contracts. I assume what you heard was the government take on the issue. No one in my husband's company has "Cadillac" anything so it is a non-issue for us.
I do want to say that here in the land of RomneyCare all is well and the fear-mongering about it is just politics.

No, you're twisting this.

You're making it sound like all group coverage plans will be assessed this tax, which is incorrect. Average employees with coverage will not have to worry about it.

The only people that will be subject to this tax is people who benefit from a "premium" insurance policy, which really only applies to the very wealthy, as well as elected officials, politicians, etc. My boss is very wealthy, and her husband is a judge. They have one of these plans, and will be subject to the tax. Do I agree with it? I don't know... it's the same as taxing the rich in every other way, I suppose. I'm sure I'd have a problem with it if I were rich. :)

But no, this does not affect the average insured worker.

Ditto Kristen W. Our family plan is pretty expensive, but not expensive enough to be affected by this. This will not affect average Americans.

Most of us aren't subject to the "Cadillac" tax. Although they will not define the threshold to define this tax until after the election it would appear it will only include policies that cost over 10,000 for single 18,000 for family, maybe.

Personally I am more concerned with the formula for determining whether a high deductible policy will survive. At the moment I have a 6,000 deductible for family with no out of pocket and 3,000 of that is covered by an HSA payment from our owners. Even though that means for 3,000 my whole family is covered, totally, Obama doesn't think that is affordable....or maybe he just doesn't like high deductible insurance because it is the only thing proven to drive down health care costs.

I don't understand. If someone is chosing a very expensive health care plan, why is that anyone else's business? I assume someone is paying premiums for it... I believe my sister's family may have a Cadillac plan bc he travels all over the world for his job, he is self employed and the sole breadwinner. So if he gets really sick out of the country, they want him to be able to get good healthcare. They pay a lot in premiums. Why should anyone tax them on that? It's not income to them.

Thank you Kristin W. for having the facts and being a voice of reason. I have truly excellent health coverage (no deductible, reasonable co-pays, no referrals, everyone I've wanted to use is in-network), live in a high cost of living, high cost of health care state and my family policy is $20K per year all in (my employer pays 75% of that). There is no need for policy costs to exceed this amount when $20K a year can buy A LOT of health care. FWIW we're insuring 6 people but the cost would be the same for 3 of us or 10 of us.