The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has issued a final rule expanding the opportunity of unrelated employers of all sizes (but particularly small employers) to offer employment-based health insurance through Association Health Plans (AHPs). Significantly, the final rule applies“large group” coverage rules under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to qualifying AHPs.

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In Rev. Proc. 2018-34, the IRS released the inflation adjusted amounts for 2019 relevant to determining whether employer-sponsored coverage is “affordable” for purposes of the Affordable Care Act’s (“ACA’s”) employer shared responsibility provisions and premium tax credit program. As shown in the table below, for plan years beginning in 2019, the affordability percentage is 9.86% of an employee’s household income or applicable safe harbor.

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The IRS has released the inflation adjusted amounts for 2019 relevant to health savings accounts (HSAs) and high deductible health plans (HDHPs). Notably, the 2019 Self-Only HSA contribution limit is increasing to $3,500, and the 2019 Family HSA contribution limit is increasing to $7,000. We do not anticipate that the HSA contribution limits for 2019 will change as they did for 2018.

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The IRS has announced it is modifying the annual limitation on deductions for contributions to a health savings account (“HSA”) allowed for taxpayers with family coverage under a high deductible health plan (“HDHP”) for the 2018 calendar year. Under Rev. Proc. 2018-27, taxpayers will be allowed to treat $6,900 as the annual limitation, rather than the $6,850 limitation announced in Rev. Proc. 2018-18 earlier this year.

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