County will pay penalties for workers under Affordable Care Act
Stanislaus County government will pay the penalty rather than provide health coverage to certain part-time employees. And it will closely watch time sheets of workers to avoid additional penalties for employers under the Affordable Care Act next year.
Starting in 2015, the federal law will require the county and other employers to pay penalties if they don’t provide health coverage to employees who work 30 or more hours a week over a six-month period. County health benefits are not provided to all 30-hour-per-week employees. The county will be penalized $3,000 for each of those “variable hour” workers who buys coverage from the Covered California health exchange and qualifies for a subsidy to lower premiums.
Tuesday, staff told the Board of Supervisors there are about 50 employees in that category and some are eligible for a subsidy, which could translate to $33,000 in penalties. County leaders chose to pay the feds after learning basic coverage for the workers could cost up to $50,000 annually.
Department managers will budget $3,000 for each employee who could purchase subsidized coverage from the exchange. To keep those costs in check, departments will need approval from the chief executive officer to use additional part-timers. About 600 of the county’s 4,000 employees have not worked enough hours to earn benefits.
In other action
The Board of Supervisors took the following action Tuesday:
▪ Approved the Focus on Prevention 2015 initiative to address the root causes of homelessness, dysfunctional families, troubled youth and repeat criminal offenders. The county will hold meetings on each topic and organize different sectors of the community to work on solutions.
▪ Approved employee health insurance rates for 2015.
▪ Heard a presentation on the Transportation Development Act and unmet transit needs.
This story was originally published October 28, 2014 at 7:06 PM with the headline "County will pay penalties for workers under Affordable Care Act."