We are a small software company celebrating our 25th year in Massachusetts. In the past we have attracted and retained qualified employees with benefits as medical insurance. In the current economy we are struggling to survive.
Here are the straightforward facts at our company:
1. We employ healthy non-smokers who are over the age of 55.
2. BCBS has informed us that our insurance rates are going up 53% this year. FIFTY THREE PERCENT.
3. This year’s increase follows a 38% increase last year and a 29% increase two years ago.
4. Every year for the last three years we have ratcheted down our company’s health insurance plan… to plans with higher co-pays, higher deductibles and less medical coverages.
5. Every year for the last three years I spend at between 1-2 man-weeks of my time researching all medical health plans options and switching health providers. In the last three years we have gone from BCBS to Tufts to BCBS. This year we will likely switch to Fallon. This considerable time investment is completely unproductive and unrelated to moving our business forward, which puts me at a disadvantage to my competitors outside Massachusetts.
6. NO employee has received any increase in salary or wages in five plus
years.
My View
1. BCBS Bill Van Fassen’s $16 Million dollar non-retirement retirement payout in 2006 should have been the definitive wake up call to the State Insurance Commissioner. Their spending IS out of control. The burden of this gross spending excess is directly on the backs of those who can least afford to pay, small business employees and owners.
2. In today’s difficult economy BCBS’s actions are both irresponsible and immoral. A 53% rate increase in 2010 should not be a rate increase acceptable to the State Insurance Commissioner. If BCBS truly cannot provide a lower rate than its license to operate in the Commonwealth should be suspended until they can return with a defensible rate.
3. The small business community, both owners and employees, wants and needs the Patrick administration to demonstrate real leadership and FORCEFULLY block these rate increases immediately, including threat of license suspensions or the option of continuation of prior year rates.
4. The Insurance Commissioner MUST communicate that annual rate increases are NOT a given. The insurance companies should be forced to operate more like small businesses, and every other business is the current depressed economic climate. Eliminate unnecessary costs, like TV advertising, and learn to do more with less… STOP passing on costs to those least able to fight large bureaucratic companies.
5. In Massachusetts we like to consider ourselves as progressive and forward thinking. Wouldn’t we then agree that the quality of health care in Massachusetts should NOT be a function of the company they work for. Health insurance rates for large company employees versus small company employees should not vary significantly.
6. This is much more than a political issue. This is a life and death issue.
The Commissioner of Insurance cannot error by strongly advocating, AND DELIVERING equitable health insurance options of Massachusetts residents.
Regards,
Joe
Joseph T. Kowalik
President & CEO, Graphx Inc.
Woburn, MA
Tags: 53%, BCBS, employees, health insurance, insurance rates, Massachusetts, small business
