The first open enrollment period for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act closes Monday for most, but Ohio University officials are still questioning how the legislation will affect health care premiums and the budget to pay for them while still funding other priorities.
INSURANCE PACKAGES
Because health care expenses are estimated to increase by about 7 percent under the legislation, OU’s costs will increase from $48 million to $52 million next year, said John Day, associate provost for academic budget and associate dean of academic affairs.
OU’s departments pay 85 percent of each employee’s health care costs; employees pay about 15 percent. With next year’s changes, each department will pay about $792 more for each employee.
“All that stuff will have to be traded off because that’s basically what the Affordable Care Act is doing. It’s pushing more responsibilities onto the employers of companies so they think more about their usage of health care and don’t just treat it as kind of a cheap, free thing that they can do as much as they want,” Day said. “That’s ahead of us somewhere: figuring out that balance.”
Faculty might also have to foot bigger health care bills since the university has exhausted the fund that had contained carry-over from previous years, and helped decrease the percentage faculty had to pay for their health care, said Ben Stuart, chair of Faculty Senate’s Finance and Facilities Committee and a member of Budget Planning Council.
Faculty will have to pay extra next year or cut their benefits plan to adjust for these changes, and Faculty Senate suggested OU form a benefits advisory committee in order to consider health care costs and the impact of the act going forward.
TEACHING THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
At OU-HCOM, there aren’t specific courses dedicated to teaching the changes to the industry under the Affordable Care Act, but the topic is discussed in many classes, said Wayne Carlsen, OU-HCOM vice dean.
The legislation is changing too quickly to be the sole topic for a class.
“(The Affordable Care Act) is really kind of interesting because number one, it’s so big, and number two, it’s always changing and being updated with different delays and implementation of certain parts of it,” Carlsen said.
Instead, the act will be the subject of guest lectures and events, such as D.O. Day on the Hill, where several OU-HCOM students travel to Washington, D.C., to discuss health policy issues, Carlsen said.
In general, health policy will also be part of the curriculum at OU-HCOM’s Dublin campus, led by the university’s new hire, Daniel Skinner.
Skinner’s salary was not immediately available by press time.
“One of the paradoxes is the medical students who I’ve met so far at OU are extremely bright students, they’re so passionate about their work, but their knowledge of the Affordable Care Act seems too often to come from the same places as some of the more uninformed people,” Skinner said.
It’s the job of Justin Kendrick, Affordable Care Act navigator for southeast Ohio, to help sort through the myths and kinks of the legislation and assist Ohio residents in finding the plan that works best.
Kendrick doesn’t work for the university, but is stationed in OU-HCOM.
Kendrick meets with people within a 12-county coverage area, and walks them through registering online and analyzing whether they qualify for Medicare.
Although the open enrollment session for 2014 is ending for new enrollees, people can register for health care for 2015 from Nov. 15, 2014 to Feb. 15, 2015.
Between the act’s open enrollment periods, Kendrick, who grew up in Vinton Co., will distribute information on how to enroll.
“I have first-hand experience with extreme Appalachian poverty,” Kendrick said. “I know it’s a very big issue, and for the people in these programs, it’s the sort of thing that can help them get back on their feet, especially in the hard times that we’ve experienced recently with the recession.”
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