Today’s post was shared by Gelman on Workplace Injuries and comes from www.npr.org

I think the post is timely because it is currently open enrollment at healthcare.gov for 2015. Here’s a link with the details of deadlines and the nuances involved. Generally speaking, open enrollment is now through Feb. 15, 2015.

For those with 2014 coverage through the Affordable Care Act, current coverage ends on Dec. 31 of this year, according to healthcare.gov. Keep this deadline in mind: “If you want a new plan to start January 1, 2015, you must renew or change your plan by December 15, 2014.”

Here’s an incentive for those who are more financially motivated than motivated by having insurance to prepare for the unexpected. “If you don’t have health coverage during 2015, you may have to pay a penalty. The fee in 2015 is higher than it was for 2014 — 2% of your income or $325 per adult/$162.50 per child, whichever is more,” according to the marketplace deadlines page on healthcare.gov.

Also, a person can enroll in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) anytime, according to this website. Qualifications vary by state and depend on income level or disability.

Although Nebraska was not a state that expanded Medicaid in 2013 or 2014, it is likely that the legislature will address the issue again in 2015, according to this recent newspaper article.

If you have questions about whether your employer is discriminating against you, please contact an experienced employment attorney like Jon Rehm.

As employers try to minimize expenses under the health law, the Obama administration has warned them against paying high-cost workers to leave the company medical plan and buy coverage elsewhere. Such a move would unlawfully discriminate against employees based on their health status, three federal agencies said in a bulletin issued in early November. Brokers and consultants have been offering to save large employers money by shifting workers with expensive conditions such as hepatitis or hemophilia into insurance marketplace exchanges established by the health law, Kaiser Health News reported in May. The Affordable Care Act requires exchange plans to accept all applicants at pre-established prices, regardless of existing illness. Because most large employers are self-insured, moving even one high-cost worker out of the company plan could save a company hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. That’s far more than the $10,000 or so it might give an employee to pay for an exchange plan’s premiums. "Rather than eliminating coverage for all employees, some employers … have considered paying high-cost claimants relatively large amounts if they will waive coverage under the employer’s plan," Lockton Cos., a large brokerage, said in a recent memo to clients. The trend concerns consumer advocates because it threatens to erode employer-based coverage and drive up costs and premiums in the marketplace plans, which would absorb…

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