The AARP’s health insurance costs are going up next year due to rapidly rising medical costs that are partly fueled by the health overhaul, the AP is reporting. Premiums for the group’s employees will rise by 8% to 13% next year, the story says. The association is changing co-pays and deductibles to avoid a 40% tax on high-cost health plans that goes into effect in 2018, according to the AP. About 4,500 people are covered by the group’s plans.
In an Oct. 25 email, Jennifer Hodges, the AARP’s director of compensation and benefits said, “Plan value changes were necessary not only from a cost management standpoint but also to ensure that AARP’s plans fall below the threshold for high-cost group plans under health care reform.”
The endorsement of the seniors’ lobby helped get the law passed back in March. According to the AP story, the association stands by that move and says the health law is a “small part” of why its employee health costs are going up.
“The impact on AARP employees is not a factor at all in our policy making, which is directed at the impact on our membership and on all older Americans,” the group’s legislative affairs director, David Certner, told the AP.
Other companies have cited the new law in making changes to their health offerings, including Boeing and 3M, which the WSJ wrote about here and here.
