The University of North Carolina could lose as much as $47 million per year starting in 2015 as a result of Obamacare, Campus Reform reported.
The Affordable Care Act requires schools to start providing insurance for non-permanent employees who work more than 30 hours per week. The University of North Carolina is considering cutting hours and jobs to avoid having to pay for insurance, Campus Reform reported.
Marty Kotis, a member of the University's Board of Governors' Budget and Finance Committee, told Campus Reform that according to Charlie Perusse, the school's chief operating officer, universities will likely cut the hours of 75 percent of eligible employees in order to lower the cost of complying with the mandate to between $11- $22 million.
The school's Associate Vice President for Human Resources Brian Usischon told Campus Reform he wasn't sure how the universities would handle the costs, but said job cuts is a possibility.
"Campuses are going to have to make changes to their business model," Usischon said. "That may mean less temporary employees than they would otherwise have."
According to Kotis, the 2014 cost of health insurance per employee is $5,435 per employee - that's where the $47 million number comes from - but those rates may be even higher in 2015.
We don't know what it will be next year," Kotis said. "They told me [it would cost] $5,200 [this year]; I asked for a chart of the history and it showed $5,450 or something. And by next year it could be $6,000 for all we know. So the number could be higher."
The University is attempting to get approval to offer employees such as graduate and teaching assistants, temporary faculty, and student employees a cheaper plan.
