ACA paperwork poses a big problem for businesses
By Janet Trautwein
Fewer and fewer employers are offering health benefits. In 2001, 68 percent of firms sponsored health plans. Last year, that share dropped to 53 percent.
Part of the problem is that insurance premiums have soared, pricing many employers out of the market. For businesses with fewer than 200 workers, the average health plan cost about $2,900 per worker in 2001; it cost more than $6,400 last year.
But pricier policies aren’t the only reason that health benefits have grown less common. Onerous government regulations have had a huge impact. Compliance costs keep climbing, and many firms are nearing a breaking point. They need relief so they can continue to offer health insurance to their employees.
Currently, employers have to file a number of reports with the IRS each year, many of which have different deadlines. For instance, all employers with more than 50 workers must report the value of health insurance coverage provided to each employee.
Firms with more than 50 employees must also certify that they offered a minimum level of coverage to each full-timer. And they have to provide detailed information on the share of the cost of coverage that each employee was responsible for. They must also collect the Social Security numbers of workers’ dependents.
If these reports are submitted incorrectly or at the wrong time, employers face steep fines that can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The cost of filing extra paperwork may not be a problem for large companies, but medium-sized businesses lack the resources. Two-thirds of all employers rely on outside organizations to help with reporting requirements.
Fortunately, lawmakers have introduced bipartisan bills to simplify some reporting requirements for employers who offer health insurance.
H.R. 3919 and S. 1908, the Commonsense Reporting Act, would move employers to a voluntary reporting system and decrease the amount of information requested by the IRS and other agencies.
These changes would save businesses time and money, thereby enabling them to continue offering benefits or resume offering insurance if they had ceased to do so. That’d be great news for employees.
The bills would also help medium-sized firms compete with their larger rivals for talent. One study found that 88 percent of workers would give a lower-paying job “heavy” or “some consideration” if it offered better health benefits than a higher-paying job.
Medium-sized businesses are the lifeblood of the American economy. Nearly half of all workers draw their paychecks from firms with fewer than 250 employees.
The federal government can lend businesses and workers a helping hand by streamlining burdensome reporting requirements.
Janet Trautwein is CEO of the National Association of Health Underwriters.
The viewpoints expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Independent.
How to submit an article, guest opinion piece, or letter to the editor to The Independent
Do you have something to say? Want your voice to be heard by thousands of readers? Send The Independent your letter to the editor or guest opinion piece. All submissions will be considered for publication by our editorial staff. If your letter or editorial is accepted, it will run on suindependent.com, and we’ll promote it through all of our social media channels. We may even decide to include it in our monthly print edition. Just follow our simple submission guidelines and make your voice heard:
—Submissions should be between 300 and 1,500 words.
—Submissions must be sent to editor@infowest.com as a .doc, .docx, .txt, or .rtf file.
—The subject line of the email containing your submission should read “Letter to the editor.”
—Attach your name to both the email and the document file (we don’t run anonymous letters).
—If you have a photo or image you’d like us to use and it’s in .jpg format, at least 1200 X 754 pixels large, and your intellectual property (you own the copyright), feel free to attach it as well, though we reserve the right to choose a different image.
—If you are on Twitter and would like a shout-out when your piece or letter is published, include that in your correspondence and we’ll give you a mention at the time of publication.
Articles related to “ACA paperwork poses a big problem for businesses”
The International Price Index would be terrible for health care
