Employers rethink their role in healthcare

[enlightenment]

4. The government is doing their best to force

employers to offer insurance coverage for employees. For example - recently, the IRS told universities and colleges that must not try to avoid offering adjunct instructors coverage by failing to count preparation hours. Presumably, the idea is that all these schools will happily recalculate the amount adjuncts actually work, which will bring many over the mark where they are eligible for employer subsidized insurance.

What it will actually do is make things even harder for part-timers, as the schools cut back on the number of courses they offer to each adjunct to avoid having to offer the coverage. A few years ago, my state decided to absolutely make sure that adjuncts couldn't sneak in enough hours by combining all the institutions in the state under one umbrella for employment purposes (not budget, just employment). That way, an adjunct can't sneakily cobble together more than the three (3-credit each) courses allowed by teaching at more than one institution.

Of course this memo from the IRS means that they will cut back even more since they'll have to rate each course at a higher percentage of full-time pay (not that the pay will change - just that magic percentage number on the contract). Right now, employees who work more than 50% FTE (full time employment) are eligible for coverage - so they rate each three credit course at 15% for adjuncts. In order to satisfy the IRS that they are considering preparation hours in addition to instructional hours, they'll probably increase that percentage - but then make sure adjuncts still don't get coverage by refusing to give them more than two courses in a semester.

A single payer, nationalized, non-profit system is the only reasonable answer.