The CBO (Congressional Budget Office) CBO offered an update regarding the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA” employer mandate penalty this week. They believe the one year-delay in enforcement will result in a 10-year federal budget cost increase of over $12 billion dollars. That would be the equivalent to 1 percent of the ACA’s total costs. The largest factor regarding this increase is the reduction of penalty income for the government. They are set to lose in excess of $10 billion for not collecting the “PENALTY PAYMENTS”. The CBO notes that the delay in mandate driven expansions in employer-sponsored coverage will likely reduce the number of individuals having in employer based coverage in 2014 by at least 1 million people. What are your thoughts on this delay was it “Political” or necessary?

In Florida, the Office of Insurance Regulation released guidelines this past month that projects a large increase in benefits and health insurance premiums for health care programs under ACA next year. Through the rating process that is underway in Florida, the guidelines, “Individual Monthly Health Insurance Premiums Before and After PPACA”, projects that “consumers in the Sunshine state who have a need for individual coverage can expect to see an estimated 30 to 40 percent increase in health insurance premiums for 2014.” The Florida OIR used a number of methods in calculating the premium increases for next year.

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