Helping your drivers, employees understand ‘Obamacare’

Employees at your fleet, including drivers and owner-operators, may be eligible to take advantage of the Affordable Care Act’s (also known as “Obamacare”)  online health insurance marketplace (known as exchanges) to purchase insurance from a private insurer and then be given tax credits to help subsidize.

CCJ sister site Successful Dealer Online Editor Jason Cannon attended a town hall-style meting in West Alabama — in the vicinity of CCJ headquarters — this week, where an ACA rep of sorts was on hand to explain the new law and help those interested understand. In the video below, the ACA representative briefly explains the marketplace portion of the law.

[youtube bGMwcj8FUaI nolink]

Also, in a blog post over on Successful Dealer, Cannon writes about what you can do as an employer to help guide your employees and their insurance purchasing decisions. Click here to read the entirety, but below are some pointers he offers. Also, as Cannon notes in his write-up, preferences of the law aside, the cold hard truth is it’s a reality.

Related: Affordable Care Act bringing sweeping healthcare changes for carriers

Here are some tips Cannon gives:

-Advise them not to believe anything about the law they hear from friends of family members.

-Advise them not to believe anything they read on Facebook about the law.

-Point them toward this list of agencies — “Navigators” as they’ve been dubbed — who can help them understand the law. These people are consultants and are forbidden from advising people to purchase or change insurance plans. They simply answer questions. Lots of them are available to come speak at your place of business. As Cannon notes, this could ease tensions, and even if they get answers they don’t like, they have answers.

-Point them toward Enroll America, another resource that can answers questions about the law. It’s not government supported, so if you’re employers are worried about conspiracies of Navigators speakers, this might be a good route.