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(c) 2010-2024 Jon L Gelman, All Rights Reserved.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Health Law Adds New Expense For Farmers: Insurance For Field Workers

Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from www.kaiserhealthnews.org

Farm labor contractors across California -- the nation's biggest agricultural engine -- are anxiously studying a provision of the Affordable Care Act, which will require hundreds of thousands of field workers to be covered by health insurance.

And while the requirement to cover workers was recently delayed until 2015, the contractors, who provide farmers with armies of field workers, say they are already preparing for the potential cost, inconvenience, and liability the new law will bring to their business, which typically operates on a slender profit margin.

"I've been to at least a dozen seminars on the Affordable Care Act since February," said Chuck Herrin, owner of Sunrise Farm Labor, a contractor based here. "If you don't take the right approach, you're wiped out."

The effects of the new law could be profound. Insurance brokers and health providers familiar with California's $43.5 billion agricultural industry estimate that meeting the law's minimum health plan will cost about $1 per hour per employee worked in the field.



"Everybody is afraid of the cost," said J. Edward McClements, Jr., a senior vice president at Barkley Insurance and Risk Management, based in Oxnard, about 60 miles west of Los Angeles. "It's difficult when you've got 1,000 workers who've never had health insurance before, to get an idea of what their costs will be."

The concern is felt from vineyards in Napa County to the almond orchards outside Coalinga, a Central Valley town best...
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Jon L.Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com  have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.

Read more about "agriculture" and workers' compensation:
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Farm labor contractors across California, the nation's biggest agricultural engine, are increasingly nervous about a provision of the Affordable Care Act that will require hundreds of thousands of field workers to be covered by ...
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