Truck Parts and Service | Heavy Duty Trucking, Aftermarket, Service Info
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17 Cover Story One such change came with the introduction of United States' Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, one of the most expansive pieces of health- care legislation in American history, which was signed into law on March 23, 2010. Commonly known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare, the leg- islation was developed in an effort to in- crease the number of Americans covered by health insurance and to reduce overall healthcare costs in the United States. One key component of the ACA that is especially relevant in the aftermar- ket is the legislation's requirement that employers with more than 50 employees must provide minimum essential insur- ance coverage to all associates and their dependents. The law has forced businesses throughout the trucking industry to make, or at least consider, wholesale changes to their benefi ts packages. Employers with less than 50 full-time equivalent employees can still provide insurance for their employees, but they are not required to do so. If a company with less than 50 employees chooses not to provide insurance, the employees are expected to do so independently, with the employer providing reimbursement. At Pascale Service Corporation in Rhode Island, Owner Jim Pascale says he's continued offering coverage for his 23 full-time employees despite the ability to withdraw the coverage under the ACA. "(The ACA) didn't really affect us in the fact that we had to offer it, because we already did," Pascale says. "But certain criteria have changed and that has affected the rates and limits our options as to who we can provide cover- age through." Pascale's Human Resources Director Lisa Toye says many smaller insurance providers pop up each year and are quickly gone. She says that creates issues related to what doctors employees can use. "We want to make sure that our employees have access to the doctors and treatments that they want, so we made a decision to stay away from the newcom- ers in the marketplace," she says. Adding higher deductibles to the employees' coverage also has been an unfortunate aspect of growing healthcare costs. "We have tried being creative in fi nd- ing ways to keep the costs down and for them not to affect the employees," Toye says. The Affordable Care Act also offers small businesses with fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees — with average annual wages below $50,000 — various tax credits to help pay for employee premiums. And Toye says those credits are tough to get. "We try and try but have not been able to get the tax credits," she says. In cases where a small business decides to offer coverage, the IRS also requires reporting to determine whether employees have been offered afford- able, minimum essential coverage, and whether the employer is subject to shared responsibility payments under the Inter- nal Revenue Code. Requirements are much more de- tailed for large employers. The IRS says W W W . T R U C K P A R T S A N D S E R V I C E . C O M N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 6 | T R U C K P A R T S & S E R V I C E Businesses throughout the trucking industry continue to face changes brought on by the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. T he way of doing business continues to evolve and change, bringing with it a constant need to stay on top of things.