Delays add confusion to new health insurance laws

What is already in effect?

Insurers can't deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions or impose lifetime coverage limits.

Most residents must have health insurance or pay penalty taxes on their 2014 tax returns. This new tax is the greater of 1 percent of adjusted household income or $95 per adult plus $47.50 per child; in 2015, the greater of 2 percent of adjusted household income or $325 per adult plus $162.50 per child; thereafter, the greater of 2.5 percent of adjusted household income or $695 per adult plus $347.50 per child.

Residents between 100 percent of the federal poverty level ($11,490 for 2013, or $31,322 for a family of four) and 400 percent ($23,550, or $94,200 for a family of four) who buy health insurance through Oklahoma's federally run exchange will be eligible for variable tax credits based on annual income and family size.

Insurers must cover certain preventive services such as screenings and immunizations recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force with no co-payments or deductibles.

Children who don't receive health care coverage from employers can stay on their parents' plans to age 26, regardless of marital or student status.

A new 80/20 loss-ratio rule requires health insurers to spend no more than 20 percent of customer premiums on administration.

Small employers who pay at least half the cost of single health insurance coverage for their employees may claim tax credits of up to 35 percent of premiums; 25 percent for tax-exempt organizations. The credit depends on the number of full-time employees, limited to 24, and average annual wages, which can be no more than $50,000. Businesses that use part-time help may qualify, even if they employ more than 25.

What parts have been delayed?

Mandates that will be delayed until 2015; 2016 for medium-sized employers:

Businesses with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees must offer health insurance to employees who average 30 or more hours per week from the preceding year or pay annual penalties of $2,000 per full-time employee, excluding their first 30. The formula to determine large employer status takes employees' total number of monthly hours worked during a designated three-month to 12-month measurement period. Employees who work more than 130 hours for the measurement period are considered full-time. If the company has fewer than 50 full-time employees, it also will want to count full-time equivalent employees by taking the total hours worked for a month divided by 120 (the total monthly hours for a full-time, or 30-hour-a-week worker) then add the two together. An employer with 35 full-time workers and 20 who average 24 hours a week, for example, could be deemed as having the equivalent of 51 employees. The 20 part-time employees who work an average of 96 hours per month would count as 16 full-time workers - 1,920 (20 multiplied by 96) divided by 120. Employers may not be subject to mandates if they only exceed 50 full-time equivalent employees for 120 days or less a year.

The waiting period for insurance for new hires can't exceed 90 days without penalty.

Businesses can face fines of $3,000 per employee for each worker who buys insurance on the exchange if the company's insurance is deemed inadequate (covers less than 60 percent of essential benefits) or unaffordable (costs more than 9.5 percent of a worker's salary, or $117.67 monthly for a minimum-wage worker).

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services