ACA on the farm

Providing health insurance to thousands of uninsured field workers to meet Affordable Care Act requirements will be a challenge for California’s agricultural industry.

According to estimates from the insurance industry, minimum health coverage under the ACA would cost the agriculture industry $1 per employee for every hour of work in the field, according to The New York Times.

Farm-labor contractors typically operate with a 2 percent profit margin, leaving little room to accommodate the added cost of providing health-care coverage. The expense likely will be passed on to growers and, subsequently, consumers.

Further, field workers will also have difficulty setting aside enough of their wages to cover health-care expenses; the minimum health plan under the ACA would cost farm workers about $250 a month.