Welcome to the world of Obamacare, part-time teachers! What you thought was going to be free, ended
up screwing thee. You thought you were
going to be immune from this monstrosity, just because you’re public employees. Didn’t turn out that way did it?
McCoy Faulkner
collects $81 a day as a substitute teacher in the Wake County Public School
System. A mere sub, he has no benefits.
The 62-year-old
former Raleigh police officer shells out $580 a month for an individual
insurance policy, more than half his monthly pay. The full-time teachers for
whom Faulkner fills in, however, are eligible for free health insurance, with
no monthly premiums, through their employer.
That’s why
Faulkner was looking forward to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,
figuring he was the kind of person that the health care reform law was designed
to help. Under the new law, anyone who works 30 hours or more a week for a
large business will be eligible for employer-sponsored health care.
But instead of
adding subs like Faulkner to its health care plan, the school system is looking
for ways to avoid doing so. Wake is considering restricting its 3,300-plus
substitutes to working less than 30 hours a week, effective July 1.
The reason: If
just a third of the system’s subs were to qualify for employer-sponsored
insurance, it would cost Wake schools about $5.2 million, chief business
officer David Neter said.
There is an
option. Just not the one he expected.
Those who can’t
buy insurance through work will have a backup option: buying coverage through a
health exchange. The Affordable Care Act even includes federal subsidies for
people at certain income levels to offset insurance costs. The subsidies are
available to individuals making as much as $45,960 a year, and for a family of
four making as much as $94,200 a year – well within range for substitute
teachers and Piggly Wiggly clerks.
Nearly 900,000
North Carolinians are eligible for these subsidies, according to a recent
report issued by the N.C. Institute of Medicine, a nonpartisan research
organization in Morrisville.
Health exchange
details are not out yet, so Faulkner doesn’t know how that option will compare
to the Wake schools plan, but he doubts the exchanges will be able to compete
with the county’s health plan.
“People who
need the benefits won’t be able to get in,” Faulkner said. “They were hoping
they would be able to have insurance, which is what the law was designed to
do.”
You can get
insurance, Mr. Faulkner. You just have
to pay for it. Before, you had the
option of not buying it. Now you
must. This isn’t your grandpa’s America,
any more.
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