Senate Passes Reconciliation Bill

After a marathon of all-night Congressional proceedings, the Senate voted 56-43 on Thursday in favor of a slightly amended Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (H.R. 4872), otherwise known as the reconciliation bill containing “fixes” to the recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148). The Senate’s consideration of the reconciliation bill hit a snag early Thursday when Republican Senators opposed to the bill were successful in identifying two provisions involving the student loan portion of the measure that do not adhere to the “Byrd Rule,” which prevents the inclusion of provisions in a budget reconciliation bill that lack a budgetary impact. Since the provisions were deleted, the bill will need to return to the House for yet another vote. It is expected that the House will approve the amended version later today, and President Obama will quickly sign it into law. Taken together, the two health care overhaul bills will make significant changes to this country’s health care system, and present new obligations for employers.

Among other changes, the reconciliation bill alters the employer penalty provisions contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act by increasing the fee large employers (more than 50 employees) have to pay if they do not offer health coverage from $750 to $2,000 per the number of full-time employees (excluding the first 30 employees in the calculation). As explained in a fact sheet, (pdf) large employers that do offer insurance but whose coverage is deemed unaffordable or does not cover at least 60 percent of allowable costs will pay $3,000 for any full-time employee that receives a tax credit in the newly-created health insurance Exchange up to an aggregate cap of $2,000 for every full-time employee. Employers with more than 200 employees will be required to automatically enroll all employees in their health insurance plans, allowing individual workers to opt-out, and provide notice to employees of their health insurance options, including coverage through the Exchange.

For more information on how this health care reform package will most likely affect the workplace, see Littler’s Insight: Health Care Reform – What are Key Considerations for Employers? by Ilyse W. Schuman and Steven J. Friedman.

This entry was written by Ilyse Schuman.

Photo credit: MBPHOTO, INC.