The increase in health care premiums is terrible and unsustainable. That’s what dozens of small businesses have told us about their insurance rate increases-and we’ve experienced it too. The Governor was here recently and listened to 13 businesses report on the impact of increases on their companies. He promised help. We know that these increases can prevent hiring more workers or prevent growth of any kind. We know that businesses owners and employees have increasingly high deductibles and co payments and are experiencing lower incomes as a result. We want to hear from you about what you’ve experienced. Tell us your story. We want to make sure our policy makers continue to hear from many, many small businesses. This issue is growing. Please add your voice. Christine
Christine B. Sullivan
Executive Director
Enterprise Center at Salem State College
Tags: entrepreneur, health insurance, Massachusetts, proprietor, small business, sole proprietor
March 17, 2010 at 9:09 pm |
I’m a Sole Proprietor and honestly considering folding up shop after 8 years because I cannot afford the health insurance. I can’t save for retirement if I’m getting gored like this.
My premium went up 16% this year. Every year for the past 5 years I have chosen lesser and lesser coverage just in order to maintain insurance. Here’s the thing: I’m a healthy 37 year old woman. I never use the damn insurance. My co-pays are $35-$50 depending on the service. On the odd occassion when I do get sick, I don’t go to the doctor because I’m so strapped right now that I can’t come up with the co-pay.
It’s just INSANE to be put in this position. We’re out there taking the risks trying to do something new, innovative, exciting–you know AMERICAN–and what do we get in return? Tea partiers screaming against reform. It’s madness.
March 17, 2010 at 9:24 pm |
As a non-Mass small business owner, I am watching the national healthcare reform with great interest and more than a little trepidation. Massachusetts has been (briefly) held up in the national spotlight as a state with a universal coverage plan that works. I am fearful that the Massachusetts experience will rapidly become the American experience if the current legislation is passed.
March 17, 2010 at 10:16 pm |
Anybody who thinks that there is nothing wrong with our health care system needs to consider the fact that we, as a nation spend over double per capita on health care than the next highest spending countries in the world and we are well below the other major industrialized countries when it comes to those health care indices used to measure the health of a population. We also have the fastest rising health care costs of any nation in the world.
The government is the largest purchaser of health care in this country but we are all paying for that with our taxes. Business is the second largest purchaser of health care. Anybody who is currently paying for health care in any way is currently paying for the cost of free care which hospitals must by law provide. we pay for it in our out of pocket fees, in our taxes and in our health care premiums.
When uninsured people don’t get the preventative and primary care that they need, they end up being treated in hospitals, the most expensive of health care settings. Again, we are all picking up the tab for this.
So when people question whether we can afford health care reform, tell them that we can not afford not to have health care reform.
March 17, 2010 at 10:24 pm |
We have always tried to maintain steady health insurance for ourselves, even before it became a law in Massachusetts. And, I have managed to find resources to get insurance for less than what we would pay as an average consumer. But, it still takes a big bite of our revenues. The rates should be proportional to the number of employees or company size.
March 18, 2010 at 9:37 am |
There is no one magic solution to cutting costs. But a good start would be tort reform. I’ve written to my legislators about this. I would suggest a mandatory arbitration system coupled with case management. The closest system we have to this now is workers compensation.
One cause of litigation is inflated expectations about what is a reasonable medical outcome. Another cause is, of course, medical incompetence. Even if a physician is not at fault, the patient may still have issues. That’s why some form of case management and followup is important.
Patients need to be made as whole as possible when serious errors occur. Physicians and other health care providers need to be free of unnecessary legal entanglements. Our culture of assigning blame when life is not perfect must be addressed rationally.
March 18, 2010 at 1:01 pm |
While these problems are complex the many steps to fix the problem should be identified and quantified. Based on the size and complexity of the system getting real and non tainted data may be a difficult task. This task could take a very long time leading us to the thought that a complete overhaul with new measurable processes is a better solution. If this is the case whoever is crafting the new solution should have in-depth insider kwoledge of the exisitng system as a baseline for what has or has not worked in the past. Knowledge of the where the wasteful areas lie in the existing system are critical so that we do not allow these areas to be re-created.
I think the government had it right when they said they would ring out the inefficiency and fraud in the system. I have not heard any information on if this was acheived or attempted, very disappointing.
Health Insurance pricing like any other expense is tied to cost of providing the service. Cost needs to be identified, scrutinized and lowered to what is necessary to do the job in an acceptable fashion. All cost dollars should actually be delivering a measurable benefit to the system. If there is little benfit overall from legitimate delivrables then these would need to be adressed secondarily to see if the cost associated makes sense.
There is no question that Health Insurance cost are holding back jobs and small business growth. I have been battling the ever increasing health insurance cost for 20 years and it is now an over bearing burden. Slowing small business job creation is not good for this country.
March 18, 2010 at 2:05 pm |
Our costs went up 17% this year, on the heels of a 15% increase last year. How many people do you know who got back-to-back raises like that? Who is following the money trail? What is the root cause? It’s complicated. But our civic leaders better figure it out. As stated earlier, this system is not sustainable.
March 18, 2010 at 2:29 pm |
My premiums increased 22% over last year.
This with a $2000 deductible, and I am very healthy!
I cannot help but think this increase is a result of pending heath care reform.
Insurers are grabbing it while they can in a last ditch effort.
Surely, their costs have not increased by the same percentage.
We sole proprietors seem to bear the brunt of this, as usual.
March 18, 2010 at 4:30 pm |
If there is one thing that the General Court could do for small businesses in Massachusetts, it would be to allow us to group together for the purpose of buying health insurance.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has the Group Insurance Commission for its employees and has recently allow municipal employees to participate, providing a very large pool with which to negotiate with insurers. Those municipalities not choosing to join the GIC can work with Massachusetts Inter-Local Insurance Association to gain more favorable rates. These options, or something like it, are not available for the small businesses in Massachusetts.
Health insurance premiums have become one of our companies largest single monthly line items. A continuing upward spiral in premiums will have a very negative impact on our business. This is a cost that we simply cannot just pass on through our product pricing.
I do not have a solution to the health care problem , but I do believe that our current system is unsustainable.
March 18, 2010 at 5:08 pm |
MA and ME are the only two states in the US who are required to provide health insurance to high risk people with pre -existing conditions–something the federal govt supports and most industrialized nations do already. MA also requires all citizens to have insurance, including the poor. These are admirable goals, that drive up the cost of insurance to all in these two states, and have put considerable financial stress them. I believe the Obama plan wants the Federal Government to subsidize these efforts–insurance to the poor and high risk (who should be clearly defined to protect against abuse.) That would relieve pressure on that aspect of insurance’s costs, both on premiums and allowing for preventative care, rather than emergency treatment in hospitals and hopefully maintain some stabilty for the rest of insurance holders. But technology and science advances are increasing life expectancy and are costly. Higher premiums are an inevitable cost of these positive advances. I have no suggestions what todo about that. Itis our nation’s strength. 20% of health costs go to administration of our complex system. It seems unlikely that this system will change, and we will become a single pay country. As opposed to allowing health access to cross state lines, which might drive down costs but increase administrative costs, could there not be insurance consolidation on a regional basis of contiguous states, increasing the membership, spreading out the age differences of various states, and possibly consolidating administratiive efforts? This certainly could apply to small businesses, joining in organizations. It would seem that anti-trust laws should apply to insurance companies, who have been protected. Tort reform , as mentioned by the blogger above is necessary.
I think all are agreed of the need for health care reform, but it is such a complex issue. Most of those with whom I have discussed it, don’t know who or what to believe of what we read. When we look to Congress we are all upset by what appears to be a breakdown again in working in a bipartisan manner to try to improve this problem. This blog is a good idea.
March 18, 2010 at 6:20 pm |
MA and ME are the only two states that currently require coverage for those with pre-existing conditions, and MA requires coverage of the poor, driving up rates for all participants. The Obama plan projects the federal govt to subsidize these two categories. Hopefully this overall will reduce premiums for the healthy, and provide preventive care for poor, much cheaper than emergency care, for which all currently bear the burden. Administrative costs in the US are 20% of health costs in our complex system. It is unlikely that the US will go to a sinle pay system, reducing costs by over 15%. If universal coverage becomes implemented, would a regional approach to insurance coverage, whereby contiguous states would join together to get better rates, (to include small business organizations,) help drive costs down, increasing the pool of participants and consolidating administratinve costs. Insurance companies should be subject to anti-trust regulations. And tort reform, as mentioned in an above blog should be implemented. Science and technology are rapidly progressing, increasing life expectancy, but adding cost to our heath care system. One 3 hour procedure and one night stay in a hospital recently billed at $27,000.00. What to do about the cost of medical advances? We are a start-up business, and the aspects of health insusrance are daunting.
March 31, 2010 at 4:39 pm |
The crux of the problem is that employers have no business being responsible for something as personal as health insurance. For a really small business, it’s a tremendous compromise of confidentiality. When shopping for rates the first thing you are asked is the birth date of employees. You learn pretty fast that having younger employees saves $$$. When we discuss what plans to choose (since everyone at a small company has to have the same plan) there are all sorts of topics that come up like planned surgeries, past medical histories… stuff that has no place in the work place! I don’t care what kind of car insurance, home insurance, term life plans or any other type of insurance my employees have why do I have to get involved in their health insurance? Oh, because I pay them wages and in our bizzare world people who are employed or self employed cannot buy a policy for themselves, they have to go through a group. The tax deductions that have businesses crippled with health insurance burdens are just not worth it… but no one seems to want to fix that problem. The ability to look after your health should not be tied to where you work. And before someone says that an individual could not afford it on their own I wish to remind you that we live in a state with some of the highest car insurance rates which no one can “afford.” But you can’t drive the car you own without insurance so people come up with the money. If I didn’t have to pay for a share of employees health insurance I could hand that money over to them in the form of increased compensation. We have to break the connection of health insurance to employment.