More than 100 national and state organizations, including medical groups, are urging the president and lawmakers to fix a glitch in the healthcare reform law that could prevent families from gaining affordable healthcare coverage.
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Under the ACA, the test of whether an employer-sponsored plan is unaffordable — and thus whether the employee is eligible to buy a potentially more affordable plan in their state’s exchange system with the help of government subsidies — is based on the cost of coverage for the individual employee. If the cost of self-only coverage for an individual employee does not exceed 9.5% of the person’s household income, then the coverage is deemed “affordable” by the federal government.
“This interpretation does not take into account whether coverage is actually affordable for an entire family, and it restricts access for dependents to exchange subsidies when the offer of individual coverage for the employee is deemed affordable,” the letter states.
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