Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa, Jim Offner column [Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa]

Aug. 25--A cold slap in the face is coming in just about a month.

On Oct. 1, employees everywhere will see the first tangible evidence that the way they think about medical insurance coverage is changing forever.

That's the day employers will have to provide official U.S. Department of Labor Notice to all current employees of their coverage options. All employers will be required to send out notices, even if they plan to continue to provide health coverage to workers. The notice provides some basic information about the upcoming health insurance exchange that is supposed to be available Jan. 1, 2014, under the health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act.

Employers are strongly encouraged to make it clear to their workers that the notice does not necessarily mean existing worker health plans will end, said Jonathan Scales, a Joplin, Mo.-based human resources consultant.

"Employees may interpret that the employer is jumping out of the benefit side and may think, 'I'm stuck to figure this out on my own,'" Scales said.

Scales said employers should attach some sort of a cover memo on the notice to simply inform them that the notice is nothing more than a requirement of the new health care law.

"Tell employees what this is about, so they don't get unduly concerned," Scales said.

An employer should include in the cover memo a clear statement of its position on whether or not it intends to offer health insurance coverage for the foreseeable future, Scales said.

Not adding the cover memo -- and articulating the company's own plans -- likely will confuse employees and lead them to think that the employer is bailing out of providing health insurance at year's end, Scales said.

For many people, perhaps, the wrangling over the federal government's takeover of the medical profession has made for heated discussions and compelling material for the blathering set on TV and at political gatherings.

It's plausible, though, to imagine that most people have chosen to relegate their concerns about ACA to the back burner of their lives. After all, the law, which the Democrat-controlled Congress rammed through on strict party lines and a Democrat president signed in March 2010, isn't due for implementation until Jan. 1, 2014. That's nearly four years of 24-hour news cycles filled with lurid headlines, including a presidential campaign, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, gas prices, unemployment reports and sundry scandals. So, why think about it now? Any student who procrastinates writing a term paper likely would empathize.

Obamacare -- ACA opponents coined the term as a pejorative, and the law's consistently low popularity in polls has legitimized the word's universal application -- creates a new level of record-keeping, alters forever the dynamics of the doctor-patient relationship and grants the federal government unprecedented authority in forcing every American to purchase health insurance.

For many people, the foundational changes of Obamacare have been little more than dark, ominous clouds on some distant horizon. Perhaps some thought something or somebody would swoop in at the last minute to stop this thing before it's too late.

All of that changes Oct. 1.

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