Pirate's Cove

I bet you’re really, really surprised

(Forbes) Walgreen and another 17 large employers are turning to a new concept of giving them money to buy health benefits via private online marketplaces known as exchanges.

Aon Hewitt, the large employee benefits consultancy, said Walgreens will be the largest employer thus far to join its Aon Hewitt Corporate Health Exchange, bringing more than 160,000 eligible employees to such coverage in 2014. Aon Hewitt said it could not yet disclose the others coming into the exchange in 2014.

What’s going on is this creates a private exchange, which will include Sears, Darden Restaurants, and other companies, as a way of dumping their employees off company purchased and managed health insurance plans. They’ll give a subsidy to the employees and send them on their way, putting most of the cost in the hands of the employee. Whether this will allow the companies to avoid the Obamacare penalty/tax is unknown at this time.

(Weekly Standard) In short, the move is to protect Walgreens from Obamaacre. “Rising health-care costs and a climate of change brought about by the new federal health law are prompting American corporations to revisit the pact they’ve long had with employees over medical benefits. … Aside from rising health-care costs, the company cited compliance-related expenses associated with the new law as a reason for the switch,” as the Wall Street Journal reports.

As Ed Morrissey notes regarding the video from CBS This Morning available at Hot Air and the Weekly Standard link: “CBS This Morning’s Jill Schlesinger calls this “a big deal,” and points out that this gets Walgreens and other corporate employers off the hook for compliance costs.”

Meanwhile, The Lonely Conservative notes that Obama thinks all you Obamacare haters are just dead wrong about how terrible his signature legislation is.