Do you feel confused about the Affordable Care Act? If you do you are not alone. A new survey conducted online by Harris Interactive reveals that many part-time employees are confused about the impact the new law will have on them. The study, commissioned by The Workforce Institute™ at Kronos Incorporated, surveyed 2,066 U.S. adults. According to the survey, 27% of respondents indicated that they were "confused" about the Affordable Care Act, another 25% said "hopeful," and 22% said they were "angry."
Why is this important to employers? Most of the information your employees have received about the new health care law has come from the media, which has not typically focused on how the new law will impact employees, particularly part-time employees. As all HR professionals know, lack of information almost always causes disruption and confusion among employees. Employers will do well to get ahead of the tsunami of questions that will ensue when the major provisions of the ACA—particularly the employer mandate and the healthcare exchanges—begin to be implemented later this year.
Highlights from the survey include the following:
- Most part-time workers have heard of the Affordable Care Act: Seventy-one percent said they were familiar with the changes associated with it; 21% said they have not heard anything about it; and 7% said they have heard the name but are not at all familiar with the changes associated with it.
- Information on the Affordable Care Act is coming from a variety of sources: the news media (61%); friends and family (38% each); and social media (36%) all ranked high on the list. Significantly, only 8% said they had heard about the Affordable Care Act from their employer.
- When asked how much better or worse they thought their quality of care would be under the Affordable Care Act, 31% thought it would be worse; 30% weren't sure; 23% thought it would not be impacted; and 16% thought it would be better.
- When asked if they thought their health care would cost more or less under the ACA, 45% thought it would cost more; 30% weren't sure; 17% thought it would not be impacted; and 9% thought it would cost less.
- Forty-eight percent of part-time employees do not think that the Affordable Care Act will have any impact on how many hours they are scheduled to work; 33% are not sure; 15% think they will be scheduled for fewer hours; and 4% think they will be scheduled for more hours.
As to the last point above, anecdotal information from informal discussion with ASE members suggests that for part-time and intern/co-op employees, work hours will be kept below the threshold for providing health insurance (30 hours per week). Intern/co-ops will likely be limited to no more than three months in that role.
Additionally, employers are studying carefully how costs will be shared between the company and the employee, knowing that a cap of 40% on the employee’s co-share is allowed under the law, while there is no cap for family members under the law. Finally, it has been reported in various news outlets that healthcare costs will rise greatly in the coming year due to new taxes and the ability to raise costs to employers before the Obamacare restrictions come into play.
Employers interested in learning more about the Affordable Care Act are encouraged to attend ASE’s upcoming 2013 Compensation and Benefits Compensation Conference on May 23rd.
Source: http://www.kronos.com/pr/kronos-survey-shows-many-part-time-employees-confused-about-affordable-care-act-not-getting-much-help-from-employers.aspx