Late last month we cited how the Unaffordable Care Act was going to impose millions in additional costs on the UNC system, likely prompting the cutback of hours of thousands of workers.
Today, WRAL reports on how Obamacare will take a bite out of the rest of the state budget.
State agencies are trying to determine how best to meet the Affordable Care Act mandate to begin providing health coverage to all employees who work 30 hours or more each week without breaking their budgets.
According to state records, about 8,350 non-permanent employees in state government meet the threshold for coverage but don’t qualify for the State Health Plan, meaning North Carolina would have to pay for some sort of health insurance for them under the federal health care law.
With a $5,400 average cost state employee health insurance, that would bring the potential cost to the state to about $45 million.
State agencies can respond by cutting these workers’ hours, or finding other ways to cut costs.
Of course, another option would be to not cut back worker hours, not insure the workers, but instead pay the fine to the federal government. In this case, it would be taxpayers having to pony up the fine money, as well as paying for the subsidy any of these workers may receive should they choose insurance from the government exchange.
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