JENNINGS, LA (KPLC) –
Like many other businesses, Leevac Shipyards LLC in
Jennings say they practice corporate responsibility, providing a
comprehensive insurance plan to each of their roughly 500 employees,
even self-managing a company-wide wellness program.
“When we
look at the wellness of our employees, it helps improve our healthcare
cost,” said Charlie Butler, Human Resource Manager for Leevac.
It’s
that sense of responsibility, they say, will hurt them once the health
insurance tax, a part of the affordable care act, goes into effect in
January of 2014.
“I think in a case like Leevac and other
companies that do the right thing, I think it’s unnecessary,” said Chris
Vaccari, President and CEO of the company.
The health
insurance tax is a new sales tax on health insurance that will increase
the cost of health care coverage for providers. For the companies, like
Leevac who already pay for and provide health insurance, the tax will
cost them more; an idea they say may mean higher premiums for their
employees and a tightening of their overall budget.
“It’s going
to impact what kind of pay increases we get which is going to impact the
taxes that are paid into the state,” Butler said.
On the other
side of the health insurance tax, are the companies who don’t provide
insurance to their employees. If they continue to opt out, under the
affordable care act, they’ll be penalized. While specifics of exactly
how much those financial penalties will be are still unclear, business
executives like those at Leevac say they know it will be significantly
less than what they’re paying.
“What we’re hearing is that cost
may be somewhere around $2,500 per employee, well the health insurance
coverage that we’re already providing our employees is significantly
higher than that,” said Vaccari.
Leevac, working with the
National Federation of Independent Business and federal legislators hope
to get that conundrum sorted out before the act becomes law next year.