Why Employers Face Affordable Care Act Mandates

The Affordable Care Act employer mandates are not to be trifled with.

While there’s a lot of legal and IRS jargon going on in the ACA, the employer mandates basically boil down to:

1. Applicable Large Employers (ALEs), those with 50 or more full-time employees, must offer full-time employees health insurance or pay a per-employee fine.
2. The health insurance coverage offered by ALEs must meet minimum essential coverage (MEC) at a set minimum value (MV).
3. The health insurance coverage offered by ALEs to full-time employees must also be offered to full-time equivalent employees.
4. The health insurance coverage offered by ALEs must cover the employee’s dependent(s) up to age 26, if applicable.

So what’s the deal? Don’t employers have enough to deal with? Why did the ACA implement these mandates?

Well, believe it or not, one of the main reasons the Affordable Care Act was enacted was to ensure all US taxpayers have access to (ahem) affordable health insurance coverage. And since many employers already provide health benefits to their employees, making it so that the coverage they offer meets certain requirements was one way to get most of America’s taxpayers into the “receives affordable coverage” category.

Lawmakers then added the Affordable Care Act’s safe harbor relief options, which help employers shoulder some of the financial burdens of their new coverage offers.



Stay tuned with ExpressACAForms for more information about the Affordable Care Act and ACA reporting! We’re here to help spread the ACA knowledge and help get your ACA e-filing done. And if you have any questions about either, don’t hesitate to reach out to us! We’re available Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. EST, by phone (704-954-8420) and live chat and offer 24/7 assistance through support@ExpressACAForms.com.