The Biden Administration's $1.9 trillion legislation, the American Rescue Plan, was recently signed into law by President Joe Biden. So when it comes to employee benefits and health care, what can employers expect from a Biden presidency with Democrats winning both House and Senate?  Below we take a look at some predictions on what's to come with a focus on employer group health plans.

The Affordable Care Act

President Biden pledged to "protect and build on" the Obama-era Affordable Care Act ("ACA"), so it is likely that we will see an expansion.  The most obvious way to protect the ACA may be to bring back the teeth of the individual mandate by raising the penalty tax above zero again. Biden has also proposed adding a public-run health insurance option to the ACA and expanding subsidies and tax credits for individual insurance. The expanded subsidies would be available to more individuals, including potentially those with affordable, minimum value employer coverage, and would also be more generous.  The potential outcome is that employers could lose health plan participants to the public-option if this were to go into effect and become an attractive option for more individuals. Biden also proposed lowering the Medicare age from 65 to 60. Again, this could cause more employees to leave employer-sponsored plans to go on Medicare (if they are eligible).  Employers may want to think about reevaluating their benefit offerings to make sure they are competitive.  They may also consider how to better communicate the value of the benefits they provide.