By Jon Parton
The college is expected to increase spending in order to provide funding for provisions under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
The law, commonly referred to as Obamacare, introduces penalties for large employers who do not offer health insurance to those workers working 30 hours or more per week.
Although the provision will not go into effect for the school until June 1 of next year, Jerry Zimmerman, benefits manager, Human Resources, said college administrators are currently researching what actions the school will need to take.
“We have anywhere from 250 to 300 what I will refer to as part-time regular employees who are working 30 hours a week,” Zimmerman said. “Having said that, potentially the college has another 250 to 300 people for which we have to determine whether we are going to provide medical coverage effective June 1, 2014.”
Under the new provision, employers who offer insurance are required to provide coverage that pays 60 percent of medical expenses while costing the employee no more than 9.5 percent of household income in premiums.
“Where that becomes a real challenge I think, for our Board of Trustees, is that we have a lot of folks who are students here who are part-time regular employees who aren’t making $30,000 or $40,000 a year,” Zimmerman said. “They become the lowest common denominator and it’s 9.5 percent of that amount. That’s sort of, if you will: the waterline which the premium can’t exceed.”
College officials may choose not to offer part-time regular employees medical coverage and instead pay a penalty.
“Realistically and culturally, I don’t think that’s going to happen at [the college] because I believe that offering the coverage to this group of individuals is going to cost us substantially less,” Zimmerman said. “I think it’s fairly reasonable to assume that we’ll be providing coverage at some level to these folks, I just don’t know what it looks like and it won’t be until June 1 of 2014.”
Don Perkins, associate vice president, Financial Services, said although paying a penalty may be cheaper for the college, he has not seen any research into the matter and thinks it will not be a driver in the decision-making process.
Bob Drummond, vice-chair, Board of Trustees, said college administrators are still researching the issue.
“It’s still early on,” Drummond said. “We’re looking at all the potential possibilities right now and hope to face the challenge.”
Contact Jon Parton, managing editor, at jparton@jccc.edu.