Health law to help some retire sooner

May 16 2014

Those looking to leave the workforce before age 65 but worried about losing their health coverage may feel freer to retire thanks to the health law, a new report concludes. Other stories look at the benefit calculations of midsized companies and the advent of accountable care organizations.

Fox News: Older Workers May Leave Workforce Sooner Thanks To ObamaCare
Wanna-be retirees looking to leave the workforce but scared to lose their health coverage may finally feel comfortable to leave thanks to the Affordable Care Act. A new report finds the availability of insurance for this group on the newly-created health insurance exchanges has shown to significantly impact retirement decisions, allowing workers to leave the labor force earlier without having to worry about costly medical bills. Goldman Sachs (GS) released the "Labor Force Participation and the Affordable Care Act" report which estimates that the ACA's subsidies will increase the share of workers who retire before age 65 by 2 percentage points (Rogers, 5/14).

Kaiser Health News: Old-Fashioned Company With New-Fangled Problem: Obamacare
AmeriMark Direct started its mail order catalog business here in the 1960s, and for decades, everyone assumed that health insurance came with the job. These days, the 700-employee company doesn't assume anything ... AmeriMark, like most businesses, has been coping with rising health insurance premiums for years. This year, the company's initial estimate from a broker was a 30 percent increase in premium prices if they stayed with the same insurance provider. Lyons said they shopped around, chose a new company and altered benefits, including increasing the deductibles and co-pays ... For many medium-sized companies, like AmeriMark, the new costs of the Affordable Care Act are an added burden on top of the health insurance premiums that have been rising for years (Tribble, 5/14). 

Marketplace: One Piece Of Healthcare Jargon Worth Knowing
In healthcare there's a ton of mind-numbing jargon – "providers", "carriers", "the dual eligibles", "fee-for-service". But if there's one acronym that should take up just a bit of brain space – other than the ACA, which stands for the Affordable Care Act, of course – it's ACO. What does it stand for? Accountable Care Organization (Gorenstein, 5/14).