Friday, September 20, 2013

Obamacare Casualties: 160,000 Walgreen Workers will soon find themselves out of their Current Plans

Rising health-care costs and a climate of change brought about by the new federal health law are prompting American corporations to revisit the pact they've long had with employees over medical benefits. 
Walgreen Co. is set to become one of the largest employers yet to make sweeping changes to company-backed health programs. On Wednesday, the drugstore giant disclosed a plan to provide payments to eligible employees for the subsidized purchase of insurance starting in 2014. The plan will affect roughly 160,000 employees, and will require them to shop for coverage on a private health-insurance marketplace. Aside from rising health-care costs, the company cited compliance-related expenses associated with the new law as a reason for the switch.
Walgreen is the latest in a growing list of companies making changes to their benefits. International Business Machines Corp. and Time Warner Inc. both said in recent weeks they will move thousands of retirees from their own company-administered plans to private exchanges. Sears Holdings Corp. and Darden Restaurants Inc. said last year they would send employees to a private exchange.
[...]
Under Walgreen's new arrangement, to take effect in 2014, the firm will pay a fixed amount for employees to select coverage options in a private insurance exchange run by Aon Hewitt, a consulting unit of Aon PLC. The exchange will offer up to 25 different plans in some states.
The options include HMO-style coverage with no deductibles and lower out-of-pocket costs than some plans. Also available are bare-bones plans with higher deductibles and leaner coverage. Workers could have premiums costing as little as $5 a month, Walgreen says, to appeal to the 36% of its employees who are single and under 30 years old. 
It isn't clear how much money the move might ultimately save Walgreen or whether its workers will face higher costs...
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1 comment:

BOSMAN said...

More Promises Broken..Perhaps when Obama said, If you like your current plan, you can keep it was meant for a handful of people...Nah...He's just a LIAR.