Minimum Essential Coverage (MEC) Aka Skinny Plans

Alex1524

New Member
4
Hi Everyone,

We have a client with about 360 lives and they would like to offer a medical plan that meets the definition of minimal essential coverage and that is also affordable to employees to avoid the ACA penalty for not offering health insurance to their employees the cheapest way possible.

We recieved quotes from carriers ranging over $500 for individual only plans with the highest deductibles/OOP Maxs which is very expensive considering many of our other groups have SUPERIOR coverage for around $300-$400 for employee only.

Do you have any suggestions on offering Skinny Plans along with any other supplemental policies or do you have any other ideas on how to get this group insured to provide minimum essential coverage that is affordable for employees at the cheapest rate possible?

Thank you for your time!
 
I don't know the entire story as this is my bosses group but he's trying to figure out a solution for them. This is an existing group but for some reason or another the group has over 300 aid workers who now must be offered coverage if not they will face a penality. Why they cannot just jump onto the existing plan is beyond me but this is not an option for one reason or another.

So we are trying to insure these individuals essentially as a virgin group with bare minimum coverage. The current premium for the group is roughly $400 with decent benefits but quoting this new entity is almost double that depending on participation.
 
Skinny plans are going to be eliminated in 2016, so if they're doing that, you're going to have to change it to a different plan next year. Companies are creating their own minimum-value plans which are more like "real" health insurance policies and priced higher than skinny plans (which are around $100-125/mo per employee) but lower than regular health plans. The rates I've seen for the minimum value plans are around $170-200/month per employee. Check with the major carriers in your state to see what they're offering. Some companies are also waiving or reducing participation requirements for these plans.
 
Virgin groups are almost always priced high in the quote cycle because the carrier has no idea what they will get (participation or general health). They will quote a manual rate and usually throw in the max load, mostly because they don't want these groups.
 
Skinny plans are going to be eliminated in 2016, so if they're doing that, you're going to have to change it to a different plan next year. Companies are creating their own minimum-value plans which are more like "real" health insurance policies and priced higher than skinny plans (which are around $100-125/mo per employee) but lower than regular health plans. The rates I've seen for the minimum value plans are around $170-200/month per employee. Check with the major carriers in your state to see what they're offering. Some companies are also waiving or reducing participation requirements for these plans.

Is anyone using so called " skinny plans " for a low cost MEC plan? Are these available in 2016 ?
 
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