Dive Brief:
- On Monday, the U.S. House of Representatives agreed to without objection HR 1624, which would block ACA’s expansion of the definition of a “small business” for health insurance purposes.
- Currently under the ACA, employers with 51 to 100 employees are defined as small employers. Under the bill, on Jan. 1, 2016, states have the option to treat such employers as large employers.
- LifeHealthPro reports the bill would add $205 million to the Medicare Improvement Fund.
Dive Insight:
Under the ACA, health insurance offered in the small group market must meet certain requirements that do not apply to the large group market, including the requirement to cover the essential health benefits.
Earlier this month, Shannon Zajec, a panelist at a Silicon Valley Business Journal panel on health and business trends in Sacremento, CA and a broker and managing partner at Employers Select Insurance Services, remarked on the planned definition expansion, "I don't see a lot of benefit for [50-99 employee] employers to be squished down to the under-50 market."