Union Letter: Obamacare Will ‘Destroy The Very Health and Wellbeing’ of Workers

[kenny blankenship]

116. First they suppressed wages, now they are gutting benefits.

Administration to Let Employers Avoid Mandate By Offering Worthless Insurance
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2013/07/16/administration-to-let-employers-avoid-mandate-by-offering-worthless-insurance/

By: Jon Walker Tuesday July 16, 2013 10:09 am

The Obama administration will allow employers to effectively avoid much of the employer mandate in the Affordable Care Act by offering basically worthless insurance. From Politico:

But some companies plan to offer “skinny plans” designed to duck the biggest penalties anyway, according to industry consultants. And the Obama administration has extended its blessing to this limited coverage, even though it would not protect individuals from medical bills that could cause financial ruin in the case of severe injury or illness. [...]

Skinny plans will have to cover preventive services like vaccines and cancer screenings without any cost-sharing — a requirement of all insurance under the health law. They can’t put a cap on annual benefits, as limited benefit, or mini-med, plans typically do now. But the lack of a cap is largely symbolic because the plans don’t cover the services that run up medical bills.

Basically these skinny plans will be insurance in name only. Since the “insurance” will not actually insure against any real medical problems it will cost the companies very little to offer. This will allow the company to cheaply avoid the bulk of the penalty by technically claiming they offer some form of coverage.