The Inflation Reduction act guarantees funding to ACA individual insurance market for the next three years with the enhancements implemented by the American Rescue Law of 2021. Premium subsidies are increased for a household earning less than 400% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). The "Income Cliff" has been eliminated, limiting costs to homes at any income to 8.5% if not offered group insurance, based on the second lowest silver level plan in their zip code. The "Family Glitch" is removed, limiting a family's cost to 9.12% of household income even when offered group health insurance through work. Many small employers will embrace the change allowing low-income employees to take advantage of subsidies while continuing to fund health premiums for higher-paid employees that do not qualify for subsidies. An ICHRA will enable employers to set up a special enrollment event to transition employees from group to individual plans. A families premium cost as a percentage of the federal poverty level

• 100% to 133%: Zero Premium Plus Cost Sharing Reductions (CSR)
• 133% to 159%: Zero Premium Plus CSR
• 150% to 200%: Zero to 2% Plus CRS
• 200% to 250%: 2% to 4% Plus CRS
• 250% to 300%: 4% to 6%
• 300% to 300%: 6% to 8.5%
• Over 400%: 8.5%

So why will employers continue to pay group health premiums over $500 a month? Most employees do not want to write the check from their paycheck each month. Ask about the One Stop Benefits Bank to keep any contributions out of site from an employee's paycheck. Then compensate employees with Dental, Disability, and Vision. Fill the gaps in out-of-pocket costs using Accident, Critical Illness, Hospital Indemnity, and Tax qualified reimbursement accounts.

ICHRA is an employer-funded health benefit that is used to reimburse employees for individual health insurance premiums and healthcare expenses. This exciting benefit gives employers a practical option that creates flexibility and maintains employee satisfaction. Why is ICHRA such a big deal? Employers can reimburse employees that do not qualify for Federal subsidies given by the Affordable Care Act and enhanced by the American Rescue Law. With proper plan design, most employees will elect the subsidies for their entire family, so the employer contributes nothing. There are no participation requirements or minimum employer contributions that are part of any group plans. Lastly, the ICHRA allows for a special enrollment event so employers can start a plan any time of the year. Employee Classes Defined The ICHRA comes with 11 different employee classes businesses can leverage while structuring benefit eligibility and allowance amounts. The classes separate employees into groups by job-based criteria that include locations, tenure, hours worked, and more. The 11 classes are as follows:

• Full-time employees
• Part-time employees
• Salaried employees
• Hourly employees
• Temporary employees of staffing firms
• Seasonal employees
• Employees covered under a collective bargaining agreement
• Employees in a waiting period
• Foreign employees who work abroad
• Employees in different locations, based on rating areas
• A combination of two or more of the above

An employer can offer a contribution to one class and not another, or they can differ amounts from class to class. For example, they could offer $300 to full-time employees who are single and $600 to full-time employees who have a family. To keep things simple, an employer can even offer the same amount to all classes equally. Age-Based Contributions For age-based contributions, businesses can only offer higher allowances to older employees. The employer must ensure that their older employees would be eligible for a larger amount, but not exceed a certain ratio. For example, the contribution for the oldest employee must be more than that of their youngest co-worker but cannot exceed more than three times the amount. If an employer offers its 18-year-old employee $100 a month, it could only offer the oldest employee up to $300. Eligibility for Employee Classes CLEARING UP THE CONFUSION: The class size requirements ONLY apply for companies offering both group insurance and an ICHRA to different classes. Any employer regardless of size can offer an ICHRA. Employers may want to offer both group health insurance and the ICHRA plan to their employees. If they choose to offer both based on full-time or part-time status, salaried or hourly payment structure, or geographic location, they must ensure their employee classes are of a certain size. This size criterion varies by employer as follows:

• 10 employees for employers with fewer than 100 employees
• 10 percent of the total number of employees for employers with between 100 and 200 employees
• 20 employees for employers with more than 200 employees

Note: This section does not apply with temporary employees, collective bargaining agreements, seasonal employees, foreign nationals or those in a waiting period. More Flexibility Equals Benefits Success With the employee class structure, employers are able to get a little creative with how they want to structure their benefits. They can specifically target highly-valued employees. For most businesses, their full-time employees provide the greatest value, which is why it might make sense for an employer to offer them larger amounts than part-time employees. Employers can also choose to offer different allowance amounts to different employees within each class based on the employee's age and family size. With so many options and flexibility, the ICHRA can be tailored to each business' budget so they can achieve the most desirable outcomes. In conclusion, the ICHRA brings flexibility back to the employer. Structuring employee eligibility based on the defined classes can enable businesses to use the ICHRA to seek out talent more effectively and maintain valuable employees. Flexible plan options such as the ICHRA will help employers achieve benefit success, and that's a win-win for everyone.

The ICHRA law allows a large employer to meet ACA mandated premiums contributions while not excluding an employee's dependents from taking advantage of individual subsides. The law gives small groups a special enrollment event to offer more choice to employees and voluntary options for individual health subsidies. In March 2021, The American Rescue law increased federal subsidies to lower the premiums for individuals not offered group health insurance at work. The law also eliminated the income cliff that restricted premium subsidies for anyone earning over 400% of the Federal Poverty Level. Now any qualified individual will not pay more than 8.5% of their household income for their entire family, and most will pay much less. Many groups want to offer employees savings but are not aware of the rules. The ICHRA law starts a special enrollment event to enroll employees into individual plans at any time of the year. The law allows employers to contribute to their employee's costs and also contribute to their out-of-pocket costs. Employers can offer employees more choice of plans, better network access, and their dependents have full access to health plans with federal and state subsidies to lower their costs. Employers can use classes to segment their employees with different benefits to accommodate management, out-of-state employees, hourly, seasonal, etc., offering employees lower prices and better network access. Every group needs to take the time to learn the benefits and rules, and individuals pay on average $10 a month using individual plans verse group premiums of $300 or more.