Wrong forum... that was for skywest if you didn't figure it out

 

What are they voting on? Their new student council president?

 

Serious consideration concerning medical insurance with this proposed TA.

If the Affordable Care Act (ACA, also know as "Obamacare") is repealed, how will Mesa pilots insure themselves and their families?

 

By getting hired at another airline

 

Ha. Right.

That may be the only answer.

 

Here is what is most likely, according to how I understand the new bill.

If it passes, our insurance rates will most likely go down, but not for sure.

I'm simply going to talk facts here. This is not a debate about the ACA, just how it works and how it affects us and companies.

The ACA by design is a patients bill of rights. Prior to its enactment, insurance companies could set coverage limits and offer plans with extreme caveats that got them out of paying for treatment. The ACA put a stop to that saying essentially, when a company offers an insurance plan, they have to pay for complete coverage regardless of the cost and the max out of pocket for the insure:

For the 2017 plan year: The out-of-pocket limit for a Marketplace plan is $7,150 for an individual plan and $14,300 for a family plan.

Now, this is expensive for the insurance company of course and why you have seen an increase in premiums. Also, the company per the ACA required that a full time employee be covered at a minimum value standard, meaning it was affordable for the employee only based on what they were paid.

Ok, so the new law gets rid of the requirements I listed above and even allows for these new plans to have maternity cost, pre-existing condtions, as well as many many other things to be removed from coverage. So a company could in theory negotiate coverage that doesn't actually cover everyone or even normal types of medical procedures (like having a baby).

So....

I think JO will simply re-negotiate our insurance package and offer a lower cost plan but with less coverage.

We will just have to watch and see how this pans out. Regardless of where you work, things will probably change significantly in terms of healthcare.

 

Agreed, and just keep saying no to any TA's that is not on par with your peers. It will eventually happen sooner then later. You guys have the leverage now to make up all the lost ground over the last decade and finally make Mesa somewhere respectable to work.

In addition the better the TA you get the better leverage it gives the other regionals as well as majors and LCC's to get even more in their contracts.

 

Agreed. Before ACA, I remember the FA's were paying 50 bucks a month and they thought they had insurance but it was horrible. They had like a 10k payout per year with the total insurance lifetime payout of 25k. One ER visit could easily go past 10k and leave them in bankruptcy. So as you say if caps are brought back JO will give you these same options and you will think you have coverage but it won't be much.

 

Agreed on the LCC's disagree about the Majors. The less we make the more their airline saves thus giving them more to bargain for.

 

Which makes it completely stupid that ALPA is even a union for you guys. Conflict of interest.