No more insurance for part time team members!

[sher]

You can still do ACA. Open enrollment ends on March 31st. I think they do it for that long, because you're "allowed" to be uninsured for 3 mos with no penalty. So if you're insured by then, you won't be penalized. And if you're insured after that (you won't be able to get insurance from the marketplace at that point) the penalties are prorated with 15 days being rounded up to 1 month and anything less than 15 days doesn't count.

 

[FlowMonkey]

Man did anyone else hear the spin they give in the script? Something like "we're cutting part time health insurance so you can get cheaper rates on the government insurance." I like how they make it like they're trying to help us.

yeah and between my wife and I we make too much money to qualify for any of the incentives out there so we will end up paying $230/month each for similar insurance

 

[commiecorvus]

yeah and between my wife and I we make too much money to qualify for any of the incentives out there so we will end up paying $230/month each for similar insurance

At the very least it has to be better insurance, what Spot offers barely qualifies.
Did you use the calculator I posted, it's supposed to be pretty accurate (though of course MWV)
http://kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/

Also Spot is supposed to be providing a specialist to help people find alternative insurance.
I would so hold their feet to the fire on that one.
Make sure they have that person show you how to get the insurance you need and make sure they get you your $500.

 

[Formina Sage]

For folks who might be looking for part time jobs with health insurance
Barnes & Noble
Starbucks
Costco
Lands End
UPS
U-Haul
Wegmans

Most of these have different amounts of time you have to work for them etc.
Here's an article with more information.
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5752-part-time-jobs-with-benefits.html


As much as I promised myself I wouldn't do this I just can't help it.
When it comes down to the security on healthcare.gov, I've got some friends who are much better with computers than I am, they work in IT and security etc.
They tell me that with basic Google tools you can crawl the site and pull information about it that would allow you to introduce nastier stuff if you wanted to.
They also told me that more than 50% of the governments web sites are as bad or worse.
Some of them you might use on a regular basis.

This also applies to shopping sites and stuff like that.
Most of this stuff can be fixed and they said it probably will be soon.
At least I hope so, my friends aren't going to say anything, they prefer to stay anonymous.

Keep in mind you do not need to sign up on healthcare.gov! That is a myth!


All healthcare.gov does is merge all the various health insurance companies on one convenient site. You can still sign up directly through the health insurance company without going to healthcare.gov!

Here are some links to sign up directly with the health insurance companies and bypass healthcare.gov:

http://www.uhc.com/
http://www.bcbs.com/
http://www.aetna.com/
http://www.cigna.com/
https://www.humana.com/

These are the direct web sites for same health care providers on healthcare.gov. These are the companies own web sites, that are managed and run by multi-billion dollar companies with the cash to hire high skilled IT people. The government has never touched these corporate web sites and I promise you they are secure. The only downside is that you will have to go to each one to get the rates from each company. (much more time consuming than healthcare.gov, but you can be sure it will be secure)

And if you still don't want to go on their web sites, you can also call the company directly and sign up over the phone.

Quoting for truth. Healthcare.gov is called a "health insurance marketplace" because it consolidates all the plans from various providers that meet the criteria that you specify. You are still able to (and encouraged to) find that specific plan from the provider of your choosing and register through their corporate site.

 

[willthisbeonthetest]

I am blessed because I get insurance through my husband's employer, but just for kicks and giggles I followed up on the advice given in the announcement our STL and ETL-HR were forced to read, just to see how much BS it contained. They indicated part time workers would fare better in the open marketplace -- that insurance premiums would be cheaper for team members going through the exchange than if they signed up with company benefits. So...I took my salary/average hour information and keyed it as if I was a single mother of two children living on a part time Target salary...my premium on the exchange would be 53% of my annual income and I WOULD NOT be eligible for a subsidy.

So, yeah, I'm thinking they're talking out of their asses and using the current political climate as a patsy -- blaming Obamacare for dropping this benefit all while lining their pockets with more money.

Spot, I call shotgun on BS!

 

[The Dude Abides]

I did a search on the Healthcare.gov website and the lowest premium plan will end up equally over 10% of my yearly income and it's deductible before they start paying for anything is $6,350! I made $13,000 last year and according to the site I am not eligible for subsidies. How in the hell is this possible?

 

[bab5crusade]

I did a search on the Healthcare.gov website and the lowest premium plan will end up equally over 10% of my yearly income and it's deductible before they start paying for anything is $6,350! I made $13,000 last year and according to the site I am not eligible for subsidies. How in the hell is this possible?

Do you live in a red state? Many Republican controlled states opposes some expansion of medicaid and other key stuff in Obamacare. If you don't live in a state with those expansions. Access to subsidized healthcare is much lower.

 

[commiecorvus]

I did a search on the Healthcare.gov website and the lowest premium plan will end up equally over 10% of my yearly income and it's deductible before they start paying for anything is $6,350! I made $13,000 last year and according to the site I am not eligible for subsidies. How in the hell is this possible?

You don't qualify for subsidies?

 

[The Dude Abides]

According to the website I don't. Shockingly I live in a state that recently expanded medicaid and is a traditional blue state though we have a dipshit Republican governor right now.

According to my state anyone who makes up $11,000 is above poverty...

 

[The Dude Abides]

Ok, so I just wanted to see what would happen if I kept lowering the income rate to see when subsidies would be available. I eventually put the total household income at $0 and I still got a return of "not eligible for subsidies." Either the site is completely broken (very possible) or the calculation for the subsidies is completely screwed. Any household with more than 1 person doesn't qualify for a single person without a child to receive healthcare subsidies.

 

[Retail Girl]

You don't qualify for a subsidy because you make too little. At 13,000 they want you to take the Medicaid option.

 

[The Dude Abides]

Except medicaid doesn't accept single childless adults making how much I do in my state.

 

[Retail Girl]

They should. The new limit is 133% of the poverty limit, but I know my state used to limit it to those with children. I thought they had to take away that restriction. But I'm not sure. Blah.

 

[The Dude Abides]

The problem is that I don't live alone, as a result they seem to think I share my healthcare costs with the others in my household which is not true.

 

[XploitedFlow]

While this doesn't affect me directly due to the fact I simply cannot afford more money out of my checks to use Targets HC. There were about 4-5 TMs when they told us this at our 8AM break that looked like they were about to puke.

Our Log etl who I respect a lot for how she handled it, just read us the memo verbatim and opened her door to anyone and flat out apologized to us when she was finished, its disgusting how they word that kind of stuff in the memo. "We care about our TMs" Doesn't seem like it.

I'm seriously sorry for anyone affected by this also. Targets mascot should be a portable crapper.

 

[Retail Girl]

Yeah, I don't live alone either, so I was wondering how that was figured even though my income is separate and my expenses are my own. If you don't file taxes together, then there's no reason they should require us to figure that together for aid. That's a fucking crock, and I feel your pain.

 

[The Dude Abides]

After accessing my W-2s I found I actually made less money than 2012, so my income was around 11.5k which apparently is still such an insanely high amount of money that I don't qualify for government subsidies. So after all of the hassle of going through everything I have found out a couple of things:

- Because Medicaid is not expanding in my state I am not eligible for it. So basically FUCK YOU *insert name of my Republican state governor here*!
- Because I make such a little amount of money I won't be fined for not having healthcare coverage (yay?)
- My insurance premiums and deductibles are absolutely outrageous and unaffordable for me. As a full-time student(responsible for all of those costs), how in the blue hell am I supposed to afford to have almost 15% of my monthly income to go to a health insurance plan that covers NOTHING! The deductible would be more than half of my yearly wage which will never be hit, so then 100% of my healthcare costs would be my responsibility unless I have an extreme emergency or procedure that would cost more than that.

That is absolutely outrageous to me.

 

[xxTheDudexx]

I was just watching the news this morning. If you receive Medicare, your children will get stuck with the bill after you're gone. That sounds like an ingenious plan...

 

[RandomRedShirt]

Our store just told the day crew this morning & haven't said a word to us flow workers yet. From what I've read on a few sites if you live with people but you file your taxes alone and pay for your own insurance you are to list yourself as a household of one. That's my understanding so far since I've been reading this mess the last few hours after having a total freakout. If this is so Target can keep their garbage, I'll be heading back to Blue Cross like I had when I started in '02. So much for loyalty to the people that actually do the work

 

[commiecorvus]

Like I said, Spot promised you would get an adviser to show how to get insurance comparable to theirs and $500.
Push for it, hard!
I know that's only for the people that had insurance them already but it's a start.

 

[commiecorvus]

I was just watching the news this morning. If you receive Medicare, your children will get stuck with the bill after you're gone. That sounds like an ingenious plan...

Uh, no.

 

[seasonal]

Taken from the article posted earlier in the thread. http://www.abullseyeview.com/2014/01/talking-health-care-with-evp-of-human-resources-jodee-kozlak/


Will Target be limiting hours to team members as a result of the change in benefits?

No. At any time, our team members can talk to their manager about their interest and availability to work more hours. In fact, during the holiday season we offered our year-round part time and full time team members the opportunity to take on additional hours or cross-train to work in other areas — at their request.

LIES. ALL LIES.

 

[nolongerspecial]

Like I said, Spot promised you would get an adviser to show how to get insurance comparable theirs and $500.
Push for it, hard!
I know that's only for the people that had insurance them already but it's a start.

One of my coworkers got a packet in the mail yesterday with all of the information about the advisors.

 

[bab5crusade]

Taken from the article posted earlier in the thread. http://www.abullseyeview.com/2014/01/talking-health-care-with-evp-of-human-resources-jodee-kozlak/


Will Target be limiting hours to team members as a result of the change in benefits?

No. At any time, our team members can talk to their manager about their interest and availability to work more hours. In fact, during the holiday season we offered our year-round part time and full time team members the opportunity to take on additional hours or cross-train to work in other areas — at their request.

To Target:

 

[sher]

If your expenses are all your own and you're not supporting anyone else in your household and vice versa, you're the only person in your "household" as far as government assistance is concerned. I live with my family, but I'm responsible for my own groceries and such, so I receive food stamps as a single person. When I first got the food stamps, I wasn't even paying any rent to my mom and I still qualified.

If you still don't get subsidies, and the insurance options are more than 8% (I think that's the number) of your income, you won't be penalized for not having insurance. Still, you won't be insured, so that's not even a real bright side.