The estimated 149 million Americans under age 65 who get their health insurance through their employers could be the next group to feel the impact of the Affordable Care Act.
Open enrollment for 2014 is about to begin at thousands of companies, and many employers are blaming Obamacare—at least in part—for cost increases they are passing on to their workers.
Employees' costs are expected to rise 5 to 7 percent next year, according to early estimates. Those annual increases have been a fixture for years. But in some 2014 open enrollment documents, companies are specifically citing the law as a factor in next year's pricing.
"Federally mandated health care changes will require Comcast-NBC - Universal to pay new fees and implement plan design changes that will contribute to the increased cost of our plans," says the open enrollment guide for CNBC.com's parent company, where employee health care premiums are rising by double digits, and deductibles in some cases are doubling.
Other employers have adopted similar language.
The open enrollment guide for a New York area law firm informs employees that premiums for one of its plans will be rising in 2014. "Please note that the increase is attributable to health care reform fees."
Jerry Burns, a Philadelphia-based manager for an international electronics firm, said he recently learned his premiums would be rising between 8 and 9 percent next year.
Insurance providers say they are already passing on costs that are a direct result of the health care law.
"Aetna alone will pass through to its customers over $1 billion in taxes and fees associated with the Affordable Care Act that need to go into pricing," CEO Mark Bertolini told CNBC in an interview.
Divided among Aetna's 22 million members, that billion dollars comes to about $45 apiece. But other features of the Affordable Care Act could have larger price tags.
Another factor in rising premiums: the law's protections for people with pre-existing conditions, according to the CEO of Universal Health Care, which operates 23 acute care hospitals and 197 behavioral health centers across the country.
"That's not insurance, that's not spreading the risk," said CEO Alan Miller. "So you're going to have people who get a policy, once they're diagnosed with some dire condition."
The law is designed to offset the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions by guaranteeing millions of new customers for insurance companies.
But with the ultimate number of new customers still unclear, according to David Axene, a fellow with the Society of Actuaries "Nobody knows who's going to sign up, nobody knows who will be the expensive ones and whether they'll sign up, and the young invincibles won't sign up, so there's a lot of uncertainty right now as to how much things will cost".
If fewer healthy people sign up for insurance this year—either because of website glitches, sticker shock, or because they choose to accept the federal penalty for going without insurance (the greater of $285 per family or 1 percent of family income for the first year)—insurers could raise employer premiums even higher, just in time for open enrollment next year.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101158964