Paycheck Deduction For Affordable Care Act?
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I have insurance through my employer. It’s BCBS, but for some reason they are taking out a deduction from each paycheck for I’m told THE AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE ACT”. Why is this?
Samantha
I am a Registered Nurse and working full time at a Baycare hospital. I have had $339.62 for “PatientProtectionAffordCareAct” taken out of every paycheck since I started 2 years ago. I have full healthcare coverage with Cigna and am wondering why this amount is being taken out of my paychecks and what exactly is this going to?
ObamaCareFacts.com
It makes no sense to me unless your employer is trying to credit the PPACA with your health insurance so you don’t think they would be willing to offer you benefits if it wasn’t mandated by law. I mean half joking, but just seems like an absurd snarky thing to write.
There is no PPACA charge, there is just a requirement to provide coverage to full time employees. Apparently this is part of your payment toward that coverage? That is my guess.
Ok, all that said, ask them 🙂
Julie
The company I work for deducts $5.00/single $15.00/family per month for Obama care fee. That is exactly how it is written on our checks. This is addition to our weekly insurance premiums. Nobody makes anywhere near $250,000. More like $35,000 a year. No way our insurance could be considered “The Cadillac Plan”. Where is this money going? HR said corporate taxes. Why are we paying any of our employers taxes? Why is my employer making money off the ACA?
Erin
There are a lot of employers that do break the rules and there are also some frustrating loopholes that other employers exploit. It’s not clear what your employer is doing, but I recommend that you contact your state’s Insurance Commissioner for help.
Jan
I have a question almost exactly the same as others here. I make about $40k per year. I have BCBS through my (over 100 employee) employer. I pay about $25 per week for my premium and have an additional tax for Affordable Care Act Fee of .85 per week. I cannot understand what this additional tax is for. It does not seem to be a percentage, although during 2016 it dropped to .85. For all of 2016, it was $44, so although not significant, I’d like to know what is this “fee” for? Thanks.
Anna Kimmich
I have noticed this entry on my pay stub as well for over a year now and finally today felt responsible enough to find out once and for all what it was. I recently moved to this state so I thought it was an area -related thing. It is recorded as PatientProtectionAffordCareAct. At first I couldn’t tell whether it was income or a deduction because it is weirdly placed under the EARNINGS section as simply 245.58. The conclusion I came to after MUCH MUCH MUCH digging of information is that this number is not an amount of money…. but a calculation of hours… 245.58 hours. The ACA comes with a requirement that employers are to submit information to the IRS that comes from a ridiculously complicated formula derived from such things as…The coverage offered by the employer to the employee, the employees household income, and whether this makes the employee eligible for the premium tax credit. My guess is that the minimal essential coverage an employer offers its employees and families.. was to affect how many would be eligible for that tax credit… and they want to be very sure employers are doing their part. Be very sure that I am not any kind of expert on any of this and think it is way over complicated…however… I am pretty sure that people who are seeing the same thing I am seeing on their pay stub… are seeing a number which represents your “hours of service” and not an amount of money.
Lela
My husband makes less than $30,000 a year but yet there is omaba tax one and two on his paystub. So can someone explain to me why? I make more than he does but it isn’t taken out of mine
ObamaCareFacts.com
If he is getting coverage through his employer they may be simply offering a plan that is not “affordable employer sponsored coverage”. https://obamacarefacts.com/affordable-employer-sponsored-coverage/
Chas
My husband who is a public school teacher also has ACA tax deduction along with our now high health insurance premium ( it more than doubled since the last school year). The insurance is also BCBS. Is there a way for us to look into it further being that we too don’t fall into that over $250,000 income bracket and it seems a little wrong that BCBS is putting this cost on the backs of their backs.
Erin
If your employer is deducting the cost of employer sponsored coverage from your husband’s paycheck this isn’t a tax. It actually means that your premiums are being paid with pre-tax dollars. Employers aren’t required to pay for employees premiums, they are required to offer coverage deemed “affordable” for them. Taking the cost for that premium out pre-tax is actually beneficial by comparison to having to pay it after the income is taxed where you would only be allowed to deduct the costs over 10% of your AGI normally. This may be what is happening.
The Additional Medicare Tax is for higher income earners and (in theory anyways) your employer should be labeling it as such if it is being deducted from his paycheck.
Lyle Bangart
I also have a deduction on my paycheck for ACA FEE I do not make anywhere need that amount your stating above . Our company is self insured and ever science they went that route our insurance has gotten more expensive with poorer coverage every year.
Gary
Again, the answer makes no sense.
Under 200k –
Pay my “increased” ( Thank You ACA )1200 a month for health insurance and an ACA fee of 180.00
Affordable???
ObamaCareFacts.com
So then we aren’t referring to the increased Medicare tax. They are obviously pointing out another cost associated with the ACA that they are passing on to the employee. Not going to play a guessing game over which one that is, but if someone has more details post them up and we can get to the bottom of which costs are being represented.
Greg Ervin
I also have bcbs I also pay premiums. Your above answer makes no sense to me.
I am way under $ 200,000 in earnings.
ObamaCareFacts.com
There are two different things here.
1. The new Medicare payroll tax increase on high earning employees.
2. The employer pointing out costs associated with providing health insurance on an employees paycheck.
The 1st one (Medicare tax) is something in the law that is supposed to happen. The 2nd one is something that could explain why a person would see ACA related charges on their paystub. This is just a guess on our part based on the information we were given by the person who asked the question.
We would appreciate, if this is happening to other people, more detail on what exactly is happening. Feel free to post this in the comments below.
Bee M
I have BC/BS through my employee whom pays for my Insurance premium. I never had to pay out of pocket premium for Health Insurance. My Employer instead just increased my salary by $ 100.00 and then decrease $ 100.00 for Health Insurance and told me its because of the Affortable care act, which makes not sense and that this is 9.5% is based off of my salary prior to the increase. You inrease then decrease!! I feel like I’m being penalized for having insurance. Does this make sense?? Would like if someone can give me some type of Explaination or answers to this puzzle.?.
ObamaCareFacts.com
That is very confusing. The 9.5% is based on household income, so aside from how your paycheck will affect your year end household income it doesn’t have to do with the paycheck. Your employer only uses your paycheck as a “safe harbor” to guess what less than 9.5% will be for employee-only coverage.