Surveys of employers regarding their anticipated costs associated with health care reform continue to indicate that most large employers don't foresee exponential increases in providing health coverage for employees.
Apparently, Atlanta employers aren't being included in those surveys.
Delta Air Lines is the second Atlanta-based public company to make the news this week for its complaints about the high cost of Obamacare. Earlier, UPS said it would no longer cover employees' spouses if those spouses were employed at another company that offered health coverage.
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Delta's protest actually landed in Washington in June, when it sent a letter to Marilyn Tavenner, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, claiming that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Art would generate $38 million in extra costs for the company. The news media only got wind of the letter this week.
Delta listed the following PPACA requirements as components of the cost increase:
- The $63 per covered employee fee that employers have to pay into state insurance exchanges. Delta's tab: $10 million-plus in 2014.
- Offering coverage to employees' children up to age 26. Delta's tab: $14 million.
- Offering coverage to employee who wouldn't take it before PPACA but will now that they are required to have health insurance. Delta's tab: $14 million.
Of course, the latter two "tabs" are just estimates, since Delta really has no idea how many "children" and non-insured individuals will opt for Delta's coverage. But the fee alone was apparently what really set Delta off — and is a cost that will clearly impact large employers significantly.
"As we discussed, this fee, which is meant to help stabilize the state exchanges as they get started, provides absolutely zero direct benefit to our participants," said Robert Kight, vice president global human resources services and labor relations, in the letter. "It is, essentially, a direct subsidy from us and our employees to those who participate in the exchanges."
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
