Insights
Client Alert
Health Care Reform Provides No Relief for Employers
March 31, 2010
Stephen H. Harris, Eric R. Keller, and Ethan Lipsig
1. Introduction: Those who thought that health care reform should focus on fixing this countrys runaway health care cost crisis will find little reform in the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (PPACA) just signed by President Obama. Instead, PPACA creates a vast new entitlement, significantly raises taxes on higher income individuals, and imposes much of the burden of providing the newly mandated coverage on employers. Existing health plans generally are grandfathered, but grandfathered plans are exempt from only some of the new requirements.