My family business provides a Blue Cross PPO plan to its employees. It's a good plan, but the deductibles and premiums keep going up. My brother wants to keep it, but says that he will face penalties under the ACA as a result. The alternative, he says, is a "crappy HMO." I'm wondering if he is being misled by insurance agents, or if indeed the ACA penalizes an employer (100+) that goes above and beyond basic requirements.
I'm aware of the 9.5% of income threshold. That is the only aspect of the law that could account for this penalty. Could anyone please help set me straight? My first instinct was that the insurance company is lying, but my brother, a republican, claims to have run the numbers.