Courtesy of Mish.
The peculiarities of Obamcare keep piling up. Here’s the latest: Wegmans, a Rochester-based grocery store has decided to do something beneficial for its part-time employees, stop health care insurance.
The reason? Employers and employees alike are better off if the employer does not offer health-care benefits to part-time employees.
Please consider Wegmans cuts health benefits for part-time workers.
Et tu, Wegmans?
The Rochester-based grocer that has been continually lauded for providing health insurance to its part-time workers will no longer offer that benefit.
The company said the decision was related to changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act.
Part-time employees may actually benefit from Wegmans’ decision, according to Brian Murphy, a partner at Lawley Benefits Group, an insurance brokerage firm in Buffalo.
“If you have an employee that qualifies for subsidized coverage, they might be better off going with that than a limited part-time benefit,” Murphy said.
That’s because subsidized coverage can have a lower out-of-pocket cost for the insured employee while also providing better benefits than an employer-paid plan.
Under the Affordable Care Act, part-time employees are not eligible for health insurance subsidies if their employer offers insurance.
“It’s a win-win. The employee gets subsidized coverage, and the employer gets to lower costs,” Murphy said.
Wegmans employs roughly 1,433 full-time employees and 4,304 part-time employees in the Buffalo Niagara region.
Now Ain’t That Special? …
