Title
Proposed Affordable Care Act (NB)
This item involves a request for the City Commission to hear a presentation from Diane Dimperio, Chair of Health Care Committee, Alachua County League of Women Voters, on the Affordable Care Act and provide policy direction on whether to support the expansion of Medicaid under that Act. **ESTIMATED PRESENTATION 10 MINUTES**
Explanation
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandated citizens have health insurance but included provisions to help make it affordable. The affordability plan included subsidies for people of moderate income who purchased insurance through the market place and free health care for low income people through expanding eligibility for Medicaid to all legal residents with incomes below 138% of poverty. This Medicaid expansion was deemed optional by the Supreme Court. Florida did not participate in the Medicaid expansion. The Federal Government would have paid for the cost of the expansion and then phased its cost share down to 90%. Subsidies are available to individuals to purchase insurance through the exchanges, which in Florida’s case is a federal exchange, since the state chose not to establish its own.
Florida estimates that accepting the ACA money would result in an infusion of over 5 billion dollars a year in federal dollars to provide insurance coverage to people who cannot otherwise afford it. It is important for the Legislature to determine whether to accept money because over 2 million dollars to the hospitals is being phased out in 2015. In addition, this is the first tax filing season where individuals who did not purchase insurance will be evaluated for affordability and then will face a penalty if they don’t have insurance.
The employer mandate is in effect for 2015 and the employers will pay penalties for not providing affordable insurance. Those penalties apply to employers with 100 or more employees. In 2016 the penalty will apply to employers with fifty or more employees. The U.S....
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