Catherwood LibraryILR School

As of January 1st, small companies with 51-100 employees are required to meet an Affordable Care Act mandate that requires an employer to offer affordable health coverage to all employees, or suffer penalties if their employees have to turn to subsidized insurance offered on the health exchange. Larger companies such as Oasis Foods, which had to meet the mandate in 2015, have found that the health plans they offered were still too expensive for their employees, many of whom were factory workers earning $10 to $15 an hour. With two-thirds of their employees refusing health coverage, and unable to raise wages, Oasis turned to BeneStream, a company that has facilitated Medicaid enrollment for qualified low-income employees across the country. This helped Oasis avoid the penalty, but also raises controversy as it means employers are shifting the costs of health insurance towards the government and taxpayers.