2015 has arrived, and with it, the penalty portion of the employer mandate is now in effect. The employer mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act requires that all businesses with 50 or more full-time employees – those who work 30 hours per week or more – be given employee benefits. If they aren't, businesses are hit with a penalty of $2,000 for every worker that isn't covered.
When the ACA was first passed, a majority of Americans were opposed to the employer mandate. But a year removed from its implementation and nearly five years after the legislation was signed into law by President Barack Obama, consumers appear to be more receptive to the coverage requirement, based on recently released polling data.
Approximately 6 in 10 Americans have a favorable view of the employer mandate, that business owners should be required to make employee benefits available to their workforce, according to a study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Around 38 percent are against the insurance requirement. Most people in the U.S. with health insurance are covered by the organization they work for, based on polling data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
At the same time, though, circumstances appear to influence consumer opinion. For example, when participants were told that most companies with a staff of 100 or more workers already offer health insurance benefits, more than three-quarters viewed the employer mandate positively – an increase of 16 percent. Meanwhile, unfavorable opinions are also persuadable. Nearly 70 percent of respondents said they didn't like the law after being told that some employers avoid the penalty by making full-time workers part-time, up from more than 30 percent.
Few know when enrollment ends
For employers who are directing their employees to the federal marketplace, Feb. 15 is the open enrollment deadline. The sign-up period began in November. Few employees who are uninsured know how long they have to get covered through the exchange. Just 5 percent of respondents correctly identified Feb. 15 as the last day for signing up, the KFF poll revealed.
Just as the employer mandate penalty is in effect, so too is the individual requirement. This is the first year that the Internal Revenue Service will collect payment from people who don't comply with the law, docking those who are uninsured 2 percent of their annual income.
More than 50 percent of employers believe that the ACA will have an impact on the health benefits they provide to their workers, a separate survey done by The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows. Additionally, roughly 20 percent of business owners who already offer coverage acknowledge that their company is currently reviewing the structure of exchange-based plans to see how they compare, determining what changes may need to be made in order to comply.
Though it's unclear how many organizations have attempted to avoid the employer mandate by moving full-time workers to part-time, just 4 percent of firms in the poll confessed to having done this.
