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Employers ready to pay fines in battle over Obama healthcare law
US companies that employ millions of workers are considering cutting their hours or paying fines rather than enrolling staff in health insurance plans under Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare law.
聘用数百万员工的美国企业正考虑缩短工时或缴纳罚款，而不是根据巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)里程碑式的医改法律将员工纳入医疗保险计划。
Employers are concerned that the law increases the cost of insuring low-wage employees on existing plans, partly by broadening their benefits, as well as requiring companies to insure workers not previously covered.
雇主担心，该法将提高低薪员工的医保成本，部分原因是该法拓宽了医保福利，并要求企业为之前未纳入医保的员工提供保险。
David Dillon, chief executive of the Kroger supermarket chain, told the Financial Times that some companies might opt to pay a government-mandated penalty for not providing insurance because it was cheaper than the cost of coverage.
超市连锁克罗格(Kroger)首席执行官大卫•狄龙 (David Dillon)告诉英国《金融时报》，一些企业可能选择因没有为员工提供医保而缴纳政府要求的罚款，因为其成本低于医保。
Nigel Travis, head of Dunkin’ Brands, said his doughnut chain was lobbying to change the definition of “full-time” employees eligible for coverage from those working at least 30 hours a week to 40 hours a week. Some restaurants have explored slashing hours so fewer employees qualify for the health insurance.
Dunkin’ Brands首席执行官奈杰尔•特拉维斯(Nigel Travis)表示，他的甜甜圈连锁正展开游说，以将符合纳入医保的“全职”员工的定义从每周至少工作30小时，修订为每周至少工作40小时。一些餐厅已尝试削减工时，以减少必须纳入医保的员工数量。
Mr Dillon said Kroger intended to continue covering all full-time employees but maintained that parts of the law were “simply not workable”.
狄龙表示，克罗格计划继续为所有全职员工提供医保，但坚持表示，该法的部分内容“根本不可行”。
“If you look through the economics of the penalty the companies pay versus the cost to provide coverage, the penalty’s too low, or the cost of coverage is too high, or the combination is wrong,” he said.
他表示：“如果你认真考虑一下企业缴付的罚款与提供医保的成本的经济学，你会发现罚款数额过低，或者医保成本过高，或者这个组合是错的。”
“If [policy makers] get those things too far out of balance, everybody will have to reconsider their position on that point, including us.”
“如果(政策制定者)让这些问题严重失衡的话，大家都将不得不重新考虑自己在这个问题上的立场，包括我们。”
The penalty for not providing coverage is $2,000 per worker. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-partisan policy group, the average annual cost to employers of insurance is $4,664 for a single worker and $11,429 for a family.
如果不为员工提供医保，企业缴纳的罚款为每名员工2000美元。根据无党派政策组织凯撒家庭基金会(Kaiser Family Foundation)的数据，雇主平均每年为单个员工支付的保费为4664美元，一个家庭的保费为1.1429万美元。
Companies with more than 50 workers have to pay a penalty if they do not provide full-time workers with health insurance. The employees can then buy coveragesubsidized by the government on new insurance exchanges.
如果规模超过50名员工的企业没有为全职员工提供医保，那么它们必须缴纳罚款。然后，员工可以在新的保险交易所购买政府补贴的医保。
Darden, a US restaurant chain, last year said it was considering slashing its workers’ weekly hours to below the 30-hour threshold but retreated from the plan after a backlash.
美国餐厅连锁达顿(Darden)去年表示，该公司考虑将员工的每周工时缩短至30小时最低标准以下，但在遭到反弹后放弃了这种做法。
The Obama administration maintains that the law, known as the Affordable Care Act, will improve access to insurance while reducing healthcare costs.
奥巴马政府坚持表示，《合理医疗费用法》(Affordable Care Act)将让更多人获得医保，同时降低医保成本。 |
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发表于 2016-7-11 09:56:45