When I describe my job, I say, "I pay the bills. When we have money."
The small non-profit where I work doesn't pay much. That's one of the hallmarks of non-profits. We have some part-time and some full-time staff, but they're all paid about half of what they would make elsewhere.
Our employer makes up for it by providing better benefits, and charging us almost nothing for them. I suspect they got themselves into this years ago when benefits were less expensive, and now they can barely make the monthly payments for the workers' health insurance. I know this because I take care of the benefits and pay all the bills. Like I said, when we have money.
We're about to have a lot more.
When I first heard about the ACA, I was hoping it would help us out. Last summer, I started hoping harder. Our insurance company told us they would be raising rates in 2014 by 12.5%. That's after years of 8-9% per year. I know it could be worse, but seriously? We can barely make the payments as it is.
They DIDN'T tell us that they would also be re-working the plans they offer, raising the deductibles and co-payments. So not only would we be paying 12.5% more, but we'd be paying 12.5% more for something not as good.
Somehow, we connected with a salesman who had taken the training to sell the new insurance plans. We're in Iowa, where the Marketplace only has one or two companies selling insurance. Our state's biggest insurer, Wellmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield, is sitting out 2014 and not going into the Marketplace. No, thank you, they'd rather sit on their $1.3 billion cash reserve next year. Hopefully this pesky Obamacare crap will just go away.
Anyway, since we're a small non-profit, we found we will be able to provide a better plan. A platinum plan. The deductible is the same as we have now, but the out of pocket max is much lower. Furthermore, unlike our current plan, the deductible and copays count toward the out of pocket maximum. That 's HUGE. And with the 35% tax credit, we'll be paying an estimated $5000 a month LESS than we would pay if we stayed put next year. Granted, the Small Business Marketplace website is bogged down just as the individual one is, and we won't have hard data until we can get in. But there's hope. And next year, we may have some money to put into... paying people better.
I'll update as things progress.
Sat Nov 16, 2013 at 12:57 PM PT: Found out this week that the tax credits for businesses are not distributed the way they are for individuals. Where individuals simply pay less for the insurance, we will have to pay the full bill up front and file for the 35% credit the following calendar year. We are willing to offer a better plan because the tax credits make it cheaper than a our current plan. However, our cash flow is always tight, and I don't know how we will come up with the money to do this and then wait for it.
Last year we filed for a tax credit of $12k but it was reduced 8.7% because of the sequester. I'm just hoping the sequester is repealed by the time we need to file for 2014. That would be sizable chunk of change for us to eat.