Will the Affordable Care Act impact your real estate business expenses in 2015?
Under the approaching individual mandate for the ACA last year we managed to stay on our limited grandfathered health insurance plan and shop online (not Healthcare.gov) and keep our health insurance to just over $9,100. We avoided going on the mandated ACA Bronze plan which would have cost us over $15,000 this year!
The President and Executive Department have made 24 changes to the Affordable Care Act since its passage, and I was hoping against hope that one of those executive orders would allow me to continue my non-compliant ACA health insurance like the exemptions granted to businesses in 2014 and 2015.
My state insurance commission and Anthem said "NO" to the Executive Department ruling on March 5th, 2014, BUT YOUR STATE MAY ALLOW THE SALE of NON-COMPLIANT INDIVIDUAL HEALTH CARE INSURANCE PLANS UP TO 2017, without IRS penalty for "non-compliance".
It is worth checking out and consulting your insurance agent/broker to see if your state will allow you to stay on your non-compliant ACA plan for the next two years, without the IRS penalty! WHY? Look at the change in our business expenses for 2015 as we have to go on the Affordable Care Act mandated health insurance to avoid the IRS penalty.
Our ACA mandated cheapest Anthem Bronze plan will cause our health insurance to go up from $9,120 to $16,656 per year in 2015.
That is an 82% increase!
Our health care for our projected 2015 business expenses will now account for 40% of our costs if we can manage to hold our other expenses the same.
So why did the transition to our Affordable Care Act Health Insurance go up so much from the plan we liked that was canceled that had a LOWER deductible and was $7,500 cheaper???
We must now pay for health insurance that because of our lifestyle choices and circumstances we will NEVER use: maternity benefits, pediatric care, and substance abuse and prescription drugs. Guess what? The other health insurance plans by different companies have almost identical prices for the same ACA approved plans. So much for competition!
Let the record show that our "non-compliant" current plan being canceled: covered pre-existing conditions, had no lifetime insurance payout cap, included "free" wellness visits and checkups, had a lower deductible, was $7,500 cheaper, and did not force us to pay for coverage we would never need!
I suspect that most Americans haven't paid attention to the Affordable Care Act because their health insurance has been provided through the government in the form of Medicare and Medicaid, or through their employer which President Obama exempted in 2014.
The vast majority of Americans who receive their health care in the private sector through their employer might want to pay more attention in the future!
Why? Left of center chief architect of the Affordable Care Act, Ezekiel Emanuel, the right of center Heritage Foundation think tank, and the US Justice Department surprisingly all agree on one thing: that 80% of employers will drop their existing health care coverage for their employees by 2018 because of the Affordable Care Act!!!!
I hope your health insurance business expenses go down in 2015! If not, here are some options if you wish to avoid the IRS penalty, but you must act quickly:
1. You can buy ACA compliant plans in the private sector. Check with your insurance agent/broker, or go online.
2. Read the links above and see if your state will allow you to keep your current health insurance as an exemption without IRS penalty.
3. Try the state or federal health care insurance exchanges.
4. All the exchanges: private, state, and federal just opened on November 15th. You have until December 15 to select a plan and make payment if you want to be covered by January 1, 2015.
Good Luck!!!
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