[Pollster1]

Option 5: Fire employees as necessary to get the number of employees below the threshold, making it clear that this path is followed with great regret but under threat of a lethal fine as the only option to a morally repugnant action that violates deeply-held religious beliefs in addition to violating the First Amendment.

[Mrs. Don-o]

The "drop coverage" option seems to me unacceptable for 2 reasons: first, the employer has to pay a $2,000 annual fine (or what they call a "tax," I suppose) for each employee dropped from insurance, which is just another method of collection, as far as the govt. is concerned. So you're still paying. (2) You're dumping your employees into the public plans, so you're putting them right smack in the same situation of having to pay for policies which are contrary to conscience.

Seems to me that there's an Option 6 and Option 7, too. Will somebody who knows more than I do, please let me know if this is accurate and practical or not?

• Option 6: reorganize your corporation into several separate smaller corporations of under 50 employees each, so you're not obligated to provide an insurance plan for them (e.g. your corporation which has 180 employees is reorganized into 4 corporations with 45 employees each.)

  Couldn't you just do this "on paper" without actually changing your operations? Like the Planned Parenthood Federation of America is a "federation" of separately incorporated units?

• Option 7: then, so the employees don't get stuck in a public plan, couldn't they sign up for a medical sharing ministry? I think there are three of them in the United States--- Medi-Share, Christian Healthcare Ministries, and Samaritan Ministries International--- which are grandfathered in and exempted under law.

Would this work? I'm totally ignorant on the technicalities. Anybody know about this?