back to the op - I heard on NPR that IBM isn't moving retirees to the ACA exchanges, but to Medicare-specific exchanges that have existed for several years. This move has nothing to do with the ACA.
http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2013/09/10/health-exchange-confusion-were-getting-the-ibm-story-wrong/Based on the article it seems that IBM is only changing its benefits for Medicare-eligible retirees. And it’s not cutting them off, either. Rather it’s giving them access to a health insurance exchange where they can use the funds IBM gives them to shop for a policy that best fits their needs. IBM already capped its retiree health insurance contributions so this policy should help retirees get more out of their benefit.
This article –and many others– equates being put on the exchange as a kind of punishment or abandonment. In fact, all else being equal (i.e., contributions levels staying the same) being on an exchange should be beneficial to retirees or employees due to the increased choice. That’s why exchanges are an excellent option –and not just for retirees. Unfortunately, some companies may use the shift to an exchange as a way to cut benefits. The same phenomenon is present with high deductible health plans. These plans are not inherently less generous than traditional coverage as long as the employer contributes to the HRA or HSA. But such innovative plans, and now exchanges, have been linked in the public’s mind to a cheapening of benefits.
http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/medicare/320839-ibm-to-shift-retirees-to-healthcare-exchange-due-to-rising-costs-IBM will move American retirees off of its company-sponsored health insurance and onto a private insurance marketplace similar to those created by ObamaCare.
Instead of directly subsidizing their premiums, the company will instead give retirees money to pay for a Medicare Advantage plan, run by a private insurer, and policies to supplement that coverage.
Those employees will be shifted onto the country’s largest private Medicare exchange, Extend Health, which is owned by Towers Watson & Co.
According to Reuters, the change becomes effective Jan. 1, 2014, and the company will begin meeting with groups of retirees to discuss the move.
The private health exchanges are different from new state-based insurance marketplaces that will start running in October as part of the Affordable Care Act, but are similar in essence in that they aim to leverage competition to keep costs down.
