i wonder how many companies will opt to no longer offer insurance to their employees? - Joe "Bad Guts" Silence

If you're getting unconditional coverage from ERs, then I think you should pay for that, though. This fixes (or at least tries to fix) Reagan's mistake in signing EMTALA without giving it funding. - Victor Ganata

I wonder this too. If the penalty per employee to not offer insurance is less than the cost per employee to offer it A smart business owner won't offer insurance anymore. - Gunnyman™

This is not completely disastrous for employees, though, since you can buy insurance on the exchanges in 2014. Every small business owner is going to have to do the math to see if dropping coverage and paying a penalty is worth it, but this is a no-brainer for huge corporations buying massive group policies. - Victor Ganata

yup. alot of ppl are gonna get screwed by their employers. moreso than they already are. - Joe "Bad Guts" Silence

It just bothers me that the whole if you like your coverage you can keep it thing completely ignores the employers deciding not to provide it anymore. - Gunnyman™

Agreed that it sucks that your employer can opt to no longer pay for your policy, but at least you can keep it. I still think this is far superior to the pre-PPACA situation where if you lost your job, you might not even be able to get a new insurance policy, and most likely not one that was as good as what your employer was paying for. - Victor Ganata

Well, they've got two years. Who knows what will really happen to this law by then. If it doesn't get repealed and the economy recovers and these businesses thrive, they may end up making enough money to decide it's worth it not to piss off their employees and continue coverage anyways (and if the exchanges really work—which the Heritage Foundation at one point thought they should—premiums should be cheaper then than they are now.) If the economy continues to stagnate, or tanks again, they're probably not going to be in a position to hire anyway and it's moot. - Victor Ganata

Consider that before PPACA, employee health insurance was completely voluntary. There was nothing preventing them from yanking your coverage anyway if they thought it was too expensive, and if you had a pre-existing condition there would be no way to get an individual plan to replace it. - Victor Ganata

The law capping MLR at 80% at least helps slow down runaway insurance inflation. - Andrew C (✓)