Health care reform was supposed to “bend the cost curve” in health care and reduce the amount that American families pay in health care premiums. This was the message the nation received from proponents of the new law, which included organizations such as AARP.
But now the group, whose membership includes 40 million Americans over the age of 50, is telling its employees a different story. Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, writing for the AP, recently reported that AARP informed its 4,500 employees in an email that, “Health care premiums will increase by 8 percent to 13 percent next year because of the rapidly rising medical costs.” But medical costs aren’t entirely blame: premiums will jump “partly as a result of the new law.”
In order to prepare for the new law’s tax on high-cost insurance plans, which kicks in in 2018, AARP employees will see the value of the health plans modified to avoid falling within the taxable bracket. This will mean a modification in co-pays and deductibles which will put employees on the hook for a larger portion of the cost of their health plans.
AARP continues to support Obamacare, despite warning that the organization “intends to make similar changes as necessary in the future to avoid the tax.”
AARP is only one of a string of employees to announce higher premiums as a result of Obamacare, and it surely will not be the last.
This post was co-authored by Charlie Adair.