I saw a graphic about people losing their company co-paid health insurance due to Obamacare. I try to stay away from political issues so I will present this strictly on a fact basis. Bare with me as I do the math.

 

Obama
getty images/pool
loading...

I

have heard so many things about the "Employee Mandate" with Obamacare that I decided to research it. According to Obama Care facts the mandate only affects companies with over 50 full time employees. The fine for not offering insurance is $2,000 per year per employee (the first 30 employees are exempt.) I will base my calculations on a company with 2,000 employees. Here comes the math.

My current health insurance cost me about $300 per month. My employer matches that amount and also pays about three hundred dollars a month for my coverage so I am basing my calculations on that amount. Lets figure $300 per month or $3,600 annually multiplied by  2,000 employees. That means this employer is currently paying $7,200,000 for their employees coverage.

A company with 2,000 employees minus the 30 exemptions would pay the fine on 1,970 employees. The fine is two thousand per employee so the total fine is $3,940,000.

Here is where it gets interesting. Let's say this employer decides just to pay the fine and let their employees sign up for Obamacare instead of the previous company co-paid insurance. How much money would this company save?

$7,200,000 (company co-paid insurance cost)

-$3,940,000 (Obama care fines)

$3,260,000 (difference or money saved by not offering coverage)

So some accountant is looking at a savings of over three million dollars. What do you think this company would do? It would be especially hard to justify continuing company co-paid insurance benefits if this is a publicly traded company that has to answer to stock holders. So there is the math. It certainly is fodder for questions like ... Won't most big employers just save the money and let their employees get coverage from Obamacare? We will just have to wait and see.

 

More From 92.9 The Lake