Sunday, October 25, 2009
Small Business Faces Sharp Rise in Costs of Health Care
HighRoads projects that premiums will rise 14.4 percent for an individual in a health maintenance organization plan at a typical small employer
Read the whole story here.
New York Times
By REED ABELSON
Published: October 24, 2009
As Congress nears votes on legislation that would overhaul the health care system, many small businesses say they are facing the steepest rise in insurance premiums they have seen in recent years.
Insurance brokers and benefits consultants say their small business clients are seeing premiums go up an average of about 15 percent for the coming year — double the rate of last year’s increases. That would mean an annual premium that was $4,500 per employee in 2008 and $4,800 this year would rise to $5,500 in 2010.
The higher premiums at least partly reflect the inexorable rise of medical costs, which is forcing Medicare to raise premiums, too. Health insurance bills are also rising for big employers, but because they have more negotiating clout, their increases are generally not as steep.
Higher medical costs aside, some experts say they think the insurance industry, under pressure from Wall Street, is raising premiums to get ahead of any legislative changes that might reduce their profits.
The increases come at a politically fraught time for the insurers, as they try to fight off the creation of a government-run competitor and as they push their case that they have a central role to play in controlling the nation’s health care costs.
President Obama, in his Saturday radio address, said the Democrats’ health insurance overhaul would help small businesses and stimulate the economy by providing relief from “the crushing costs of health care — costs that have forced too many small businesses to cut benefits, shed jobs, or shut their doors for good.”
The insurance industry has already been under sharp attack by Democratic lawmakers who favor creating a government-run insurance plan that would compete with private insurers. Without that competition, proponents say, insurers will continue to price coverage beyond the reach of many Americans.
Small businesses, which employ about 40 percent of the private labor force, are a big constituency for both parties.
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4 comments:
Why don’t we just do away with health insurance totally and let everyone pay for his or her own care? This is the way it used to be. As soon as Blue Shield started up prices began to rise because the insured no longer shopped for price and went to get care more often. The doctors and hospitals raised prices because they could get by with it, patients didn’t complain. This has gone on and on to the point that we now only complain about the cost of insurance but not the cost of medical care.
Through this entire debate, I have heard no one address the high cost of medical care. Doctors and Hospitals can and do charge exorbitant fees because the patients just don’t complain. Assuming you had insurance, have you ever asked a doctor what it was going to cost?
The only reason patients complained about drug costs is because most insurance didn’t cover all of the cost. Medicare didn’t cover any of it, so the Government (Busch) jumped in with part ‘D’ coverage which will bankrupt the system.
We have researchers trying to find the fountain of youth to make people live 150 years and cure every disease, only because there is more money to be made. This is simply insane!
Don, your suggestion is interesting but far from realistic, as I'm sure you were not serious. 100 percent government administered and paid health care is the ultimate solution. Would solve a lot of problems in one big sweep. Gets rid of the billionaire insurance company CEOs, the lobbyists who are stuffing the pockets of our politicians with millions in cash, the death squad insurance executives, the discrimination, the incredible and unaffordable costs to business,the greed and the constant pressure from Wall Street for profits. The ranks of the health insurance industry could join AmeriCare or the Peace Corps and do something useful for humanity.
Don and Anonymous above remind me of the old Cert's commercials: "Stop; you are both right." My solution is to make politicians walk around like NASCAR drivers - make them wear their special interest lobby money "sponsor" names on their suits so we can see who is really behind the high cost of health care and insurance.
Congress and the Prez trying to fix the Healthcare problems is like trying to get a backlash out of a fishing reel; the more they do the worse it gets. Frankly, that’s the case with everything else the government does. Hell, they can’t even support our troops after they send them in harm’s way.
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