Affordable Care Act - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Ravenlotus · RV-Dreams Family Member

Affordable Care Act

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

I have been watching the Afordable care act........I am not eligible for insurance at this time, but when this takes place I will be able to buy in to the pool at a reasonable rate. and they wont be able to decline me.

As far as workcamping it is possible that it could go under the table or be a complete barter situation...........most of the time you FHU site is not mentioned in your payroll.....and alot of times you are 1099 contract labor.

but Back to the initial question......most of us will be buying our own insurance through a carrier......Massachuesettes Does this now

-- Edited by Lucky Mike on Friday 30th of November 2012 08:34:24 AM

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'm not sure that it will affect many employers. According to what I've read with regards to the act, there isn't that much of an effect on employers whose business employs less than 50 people or to those whose employees work part time.

Now, having said that, such places as Amazon will definitely be affected, but I'm not sure RV parks and campgrounds will see much of an effect.

Now, as a caution for anyone wishing to post, let's keep the comments on this to the insurance factor and not the political factor. If it gets "political," I will delete any comments that are deemed even close to that.

Terry

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

There's still a lot of unknowns of how the ACA will impact us nomads. I'm most curious as to how the state run exchanges work out - which may be too regionally based to be practical for those of us who desire nationwide access to health services as 'in network' rates. So far both TX and FL have said they are opting out of participating at a state level for both exchanges and Medicaid, which leaves them falling back to nationwide exchanges - which may open up options for us nomads with nationwide options. For sure, this will become a major factor in selecting a state of domicile.

And it'll be interesting to see how large employers like Amazon are impacted, but I'm sure there are provisions for temp employees - which is what most workampers paid as employees would be. The rest, are on a barter system and/or paid as contractors.

I think the biggest benefit to us nomads will be forcing independent insurers to provide the same securities and benefits as large group providers. Many of us working-age nomads have no practical option other than individual insurance.. but we're currently at their mercy for steep rate increases, cancellations, pre-existing conditions, etc.

As far as references for reasonably priced individual insurance - so much of that depends on your own situation, such as city of domicile, age, health condition, etc. It's best to contact an agent in your state and shop around for quotes. There's also einsurance.com which will shop online for you too. Be very sure to state that you are a full time traveler, as some companies (like BlueCross in SD) will not cover if you don't live at least 6 months at your stated address.

- Cherie

lindy · RV-Dreams Family Member

I think that you'll start seeing a lot more employers going with more part time employees to get around this issue.

Delaine and Lindy · RV-Dreams Family Member

I believe there will be many people working part time, and under 30 hrs. There is so much unknown about the ACA. Many States are refusing to set up the medical exchanges.. And there has been only 13,000 regulations written. And we know Insurance will go up and have in fact already gone up. You can throw the number 30 million added to the Medical care system. The fact is nothing is FREE. If this ACA is fully implemented, medical care as you have known it will no longer exist. Happy Trails....

Ckerr · RV-Dreams Family Member

I believe Terry is correct about ACA only impacting employers with 50+ employees. That will leave most campgrounds / rv parks in the clear. Many employers also currently have a 90 day waiting period before you are eligible for insurance. That could be the way larger employers of workampers (such as Amazon.com) are able to "get around" the issue as most of us prefer not to be at a workamping location for more than 3 months. Finally, I don't believe there is a requirement that the employer PAY for the insurance... only that they provide a group option. And as an employee you generally have the option of opting out if you have other insurance.

As a working age workamper, I'm anxious to see what unfolds. I've spent the last 10 years at the mercy of private insurers with annually increasing premiums and inability to change providers due to pre-existing conditions... Nothing major. Had sinus surgery 5 years ago to stop constant sinus infections. Now no other company will insure me without labeling all things to do with my sinuses as a pre-existing and not covering them... Cautiously optimistic that I may be able to find a more affordable option in the near future.

Ravenlotus · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thank you everyone. We will check out the einsurance.com and see what we can find. Thank you all.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

While I'm not "really" enthused about reading the Affordable Care Act, I got to wondering about something else yesterday that may apply to some RV'ers.

With regards to "contract" labor, would each "contractor" be considered their own "small business" by the ACA, thus leaving such businesses as the gate guarding businesses in a position that their actual employees would be under 50? My understanding is that businesses that operate a lot of franchised locations, such as some fast food restaurants, might still be under 50 full-time employees because all the stores are franchises.

If a business with more than 50 employees decided to cut back a majority of employees to a part time status, is there a number of hours that is set by the ACA over which the business would then still have "full-time" employees? (I've heard of some businesses possibly cutting their employees back to 28 hours per week to avoid having their status changed. Thus, is 30 hours to be considered full-time a possibility under the ACA?)

Terry

Jack Mayer · RV-Dreams Family Member

I personally know of two small businesses that are planning NOT to expand their businesses because of the impact of this. They are holding their employee count below the threshold.....That may change as things become clearer....

MarkS · RV-Dreams Family Member

I wonder... Lets just say that I own the factory. And let's say that to run my factory I need 98 employees. So I have 49 office workers to administer my factory. My wife opens an agency that rents out factory workers. So I contract with her to provide 49 factory workers. I wonder.

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

I would seperate my business in to smaller micro's and subcontract between them.........but from what I understand you will be liable to buy or join into it at your personal level such as in mass.

Defiant · RV-Dreams Family Member

I also am not a big fan of the ACA, aside from my Conservative/Libertarian views, I take issue with being forced into something I do not want, so when we go FT sometime in 2014 I will do as much bertering as possible and I think bartering will be on the upswing everywhere (more than one way to skin that cat) but as they say if you work less than 30 hours you probably won't affected... its hard to tell how ACA is going to pan out since it seems that nobody knows all of the rules in the bill , they seem just to dribble out a little at a time

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

Im also watching hard mark............After all the hospitalization this year my normal carrier stuffed me. because of this I was forced into a State run high risk pool which is very costly and limited.

my co-pays and deductibles are very high to the point of a special dividend account was set up to afford it!!!!!

With the new program I got a funny feeling its going to get worse.

MarkS · RV-Dreams Family Member

My concerns surrounding ACA are different than most. As a veteran I was promised health care forever. It appears that they are taking steps associated with ACA to increase my costs. I am concerned that the costs will get too high for us to sustain our standard of living. What concerns me more is the thought that retirement aged people will pick up more of the costs than we are prepared to. As the population gets older the cost to insurance companies increases. I fear we haven't heard the end to this yet.