{"id":10695,"date":"2012-09-12T14:10:03","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T20:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=10695"},"modified":"2012-09-12T13:49:24","modified_gmt":"2012-09-12T19:49:24","slug":"fewer-workers-covered-by-longstanding-health-insurance-plans-as-law-takes-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/09\/12\/fewer-workers-covered-by-longstanding-health-insurance-plans-as-law-takes-effect\/","title":{"rendered":"Fewer Workers Covered By Longstanding Health Insurance Plans As Law Takes Effect"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_10704\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"President Barack Obama left a rally celebrating the Affordable Care Act's passage on March 23, 2010.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/09\/9-12-ACA.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10704\" title=\"Obama - Affordable Care Act\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/09\/9-12-ACA-300x204.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"204\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/09\/9-12-ACA-300x204.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/09\/9-12-ACA-620x422.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Jewel Samad \/ AFP\/Getty Images<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Barack Obama left a rally celebrating the Affordable Care Act&#39;s passage on March 23, 2010.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>If you have trouble getting jazzed about health care policy, consider this: &#8220;Between 1999 and 2012, workers&#8217; health care costs grew four times faster than their earnings,&#8221; <em>The Atlantic<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/business\/archive\/2012\/09\/how-health-care-costs-stole-your-bonus\/262210\/\" target=\"_blank\">reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The data is drawn from the Kaiser Family Foundation&#8217;s annual Employer Health Benefits <a href=\"http:\/\/ehbs.kff.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">survey<\/a>, released this week.<\/p>\n<p>The survey also includes information about how employers have responded to Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirements as they kick in.\u00a0 It&#8217;s information that is worth noting in this state where implementation of the law remains particularly contentious.\u00a0 <!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/06\/29\/nearly-20-percent-of-idahoans-dont-have-health-insurance\/\">Nearly 20 Percent Of Idahoans Don\u2019t Have Health Insurance<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/08\/07\/supporters-of-idaho-medicaid-expansion-speak-out-but-costs-remain-a-big-question\/\">Supporters Of Idaho Medicaid Expansion Speak Out, But Costs Remain A Big Question<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/08\/30\/idaho-health-exchange-group-hears-from-prominent-foes-of-the-federal-health-care-law\/\">Idaho Health Exchange Group Hears From Prominent Foes Of The Federal Health Care\u00a0Law<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/08\/29\/idahos-uninsured-rural-counties-post-highest-rates\/\">Idaho\u2019s Uninsured: Rural Counties Post Highest Rates<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/06\/CapitolDome_ARTSY_ERS.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/topic\/health-insurance-exchange-2\/\">Idaho\u2019s Health Insurance Exchange Debate<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>Specifically, the survey looks at so-called <a href=\"http:\/\/ehbs.kff.org\/?page=charts&amp;id=1&amp;sn=29&amp;p=1\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;grandfathered&#8221; employer-sponsored health plans<\/a>, those that were in effect before the ACA&#8217;s passage in March of 2010.\u00a0 In accordance with President Obama&#8217;s repeated promise that &#8220;if you like your health plan, you can keep it,&#8221; grandfathered plans are exempted from some requirements of the Affordable Care Act.\u00a0 Such plans <a href=\"http:\/\/www.healthcare.gov\/law\/features\/rights\/grandfathered-plans\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">are not required to provide particular preventive services<\/a>, for example.<\/p>\n<p>Nationally, the fraction of workers covered by grandfathered health care plans declined over the last year, from 56 to 48 percent.\u00a0 Workers in the West are more likely than average to be covered by a grandfathered plan, the Kaiser survey <a href=\"http:\/\/ehbs.kff.org\/?page=charts&amp;id=1&amp;sn=29&amp;ch=2825\" target=\"_blank\">shows<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/ehbs.kff.org\/?page=charts&amp;id=1&amp;sn=29&amp;ch=2827\" target=\"_blank\">key reason<\/a> that fewer worker are covered by a grandfathered plan, according to Kaiser&#8217;s survey, is firms&#8217; concern about limiting future flexibility.\u00a0 Changing employee premium contributions, rising co-pays or deductibles, and changing benefits are also factors.<\/p>\n<p>Most provisions of the health care law don&#8217;t take effect until 2014.\u00a0 Related to that, <a title=\"Gov. Otter Appoints Public And Private Stakeholders To Study Medicaid Expansion, Insurance Exchange\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/07\/13\/gov-otter-appoints-public-and-private-stakeholders-to-study-medicaid-expansion-insurance-exchange\/\" target=\"_blank\">Idaho lawmakers and stakeholders<\/a> continue to weigh <a title=\"Supreme Court Ruling Means Decisions Ahead For Idaho Lawmakers\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/06\/29\/supreme-court-ruling-means-decisions-ahead-for-idaho-lawmakers\/\" target=\"_blank\">two major questions<\/a>: whether the state should expand Medicaid eligibility, and whether it should establish its own health insurance exchange.\u00a0 <a title=\"Gov. Otter Favors \u201cFurther Study\u201d Of Health Care Decision\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/07\/10\/gov-otter-favors-further-study-of-health-care-decision\/\" target=\"_blank\">Two working groups<\/a> appointed by Gov. C.L. &#8220;Butch&#8221; Otter continue to consider those questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you have trouble getting jazzed about health care policy, consider this: &#8220;Between 1999 and 2012, workers&#8217; health care costs grew four times faster than their earnings,&#8221; The Atlantic reports. The data is drawn from the Kaiser Family Foundation&#8217;s annual Employer Health Benefits survey, released this week. The survey also includes information about how employers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":10704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[68,27,119],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10695"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}