State officials in Florida say providing health insurance to state employees would be much cheaper than paying new penalties for iling to offer coverage.
It makes Florida an unusual exception in the debate over the employer mandate in President Obamas healthcare law.
The mandate requires most employers to offer coverage to employees who work at least 30 hours per week or pay a penalty for each worker who isnt offered affordable coverage. One of the central criticisms of the Affordable Care Act is that coverage will still be r more expensive than the penalty. Some critics say businesses will quit offering coverage, choosing instead to pay the penalty, if healthcare costs rise dramatically.
But Floridas estimates dont jibe with those assumptions.
Paying the penalty for uninsured workers would cost the state roughly $300 million in the next fiscal year, according to Barbara Crosier, director of the Division of State Group Insurance.
Providing coverage to avoid paying the fine, though, would cost $23.5 million. The cost would rise to nearly $50 million in the next three years, Crossier said.
Her estimates were first reported by The Associated Press, and confirmed by The Hill.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R ) has been one of the most ardent critics of ObamaCare his state led the legal challenge that reached the Supreme Court last year. Scott was recently forced to correct inaccurate math on another part of the health law. (He was wildly exaggerating the cost to the state of participating in the laws Medicaid expansion.)
On the employer mandate, Crossier said she didnt know why Florida was so r out of line with the estimates for private companies. Her office estimated the law as written, she said, and assumed that healthcare costs would continue to rise at roughly the same levels as they have for the past few years.
She said the state has roughly 2,200 employees who arent able to buy coverage, and maybe another 4,700 in the state university system.
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