re: #600 engineer dog

from the site I linked:

* Assess employers with 50 or more employees that do not offer coverage and have at least one full-time employee who receives a premium tax credit a fee of $2,000 per full-time employee, excluding the first 30 employees from the assessment. Employers with more than 50 employees that offer coverage but have at least one full-time employee receiving a premium tax credit, will pay the lesser of $3,000 for each employee receiving a premium credit or $2,000 for each full-time employee, excluding the first 30 employees from the assessment. (Effective January 1, 2014)
* Exempt employers with fewer than 50 employees from any of the above penalties.
* Require employers that offer coverage to their employees to provide a free choice voucher to employees with incomes less than 400% FPL whose share of the premium exceeds 8% but is less than 9.8% of their income and who choose to enroll in a plan in the Exchange. The voucher amount is equal to what the employer would have paid to provide coverage to the employee under the employer’s plan and will be used to offset the premium costs for the plan in which the employee is enrolled. Employers providing free choice vouchers will not be subject to penalties for employees that receive premium credits in the Exchange. (Effective January 1, 2014)
* Require employers with more than 200 employees to automatically enroll employees into health insurance plans offered by the employer. Employees may opt out of coverage.

In short, there is a safe harbor where you have to provide coverage that costs no more than 9.8% of their income, or pay a $3000 penalty on top of what they pay for the coverage they offer for each person covered whose expenses exceed 9.8% of income and qualifies for an additional government subsidy. (or $2000 for every employee in the company if that is cheaper than an extra $3000 for any employee whose costs exceed 9.8% of income).

So, the least expensive option is to provide no coverage and pay $2000 per employee.