A Cadillac plan is a plan whose cost (the amount paid by the insured employee and employer combined but not including deductibles and co-pays) exceeds threshold amounts that are currently $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for families. These figures will be adjusted upwards by 2022 when the tax takes effect. These plans tend to be those covering higher paid employees who command better benefits in general, but they can apply to companies that have a large number of older, less healthy or employees in high risk job classifcations. The first study I saw estimated that 11% of employees would be subject to the tax when it takes effect in 2020.triviawayne wrote: with your definition of a Cadillac plan, "very low" is not a definition, so what is very low, and how did you come to conclude that my plan isn't in this boundary you failed to define?
Because the definition of these plans is based solely on premium cost, high deductible health plans (which are the only plans offered by a number of companies) would not be considered Cadillac plans.
Employees who have "affordable" coverage can apply for plans in the Obamacare exchange but can't receive subsidies. Affordable coverage is currently about 9.6% of the employee's pay. If the employer health plan costs more, the employee can go to the exchange and would undoubtedly qualify for a subsidy.
As for the mandate, there are exemptions to the mandate. The most frequent are minimum income ($12K/24K married), affordability (least expensive bronze plan costs more than 8.1% of household income), living in a non-expanded Medicaid state when income applies for Medicaid, and hardship (includes things like being evicted, homeless, filing bankruptcy, recent deaths in family, domestic abuse victims, natural disaster damaged home). So, a lot of people with low or no incomes can at least get exemptions from the mandate.
In any case, Obamacare coverage includes preventive checkups and a number of medications and vaccinations (flu shots), so there is benefit to it without deductibles and co-pays going into effect.