As
a small business owner of a manufacturing company with less than 50
employees I finally have to admit that whether I like it or not the
Socialists are going to win the battle for medical care. The small win
on the mandate by Hobby Lobby brings me no solace. Early last fall when
it was time for us to renew our policy we managed to keep our employee
insurance plan in place with an increase no where near the huge
predicted cost increase I was expecting. Our insurance broker warned at
that time that the major suppliers of insurance were not passing on huge
increases at that time because they were holding their cards close to
their vest waiting and watching what was going to happen with the
implementation of Obama care and what if any the push back was going to
be.
Well this year it is different and it looks like the cards are going to be on the table. Although our renewal date is not until end of September June is usually the time we start to review where we are and what we are going to do come October first. After several meetings with our broker it seems our choices are quite limited. We can keep our current insurance carrier and policy and take the expected increase which they are predicting to be in the range of 35 to 60% because there is a move in the legislature to allow companies to keep what they currently have but not to cap cost increases. We can move to a company plan on the "exchange" that government has sanctioned or we can just drop company coverage and get out of the insurance business entirely.
To try and keep our current insurance as it is if it is so allowed which is still unclear would mean a cost increase the company could not bear. Our broker believes the 45-60% increase even if we can keep it is likely. To try and keep it and pass the even half the cost of the costs onto our employees is a cost they cannot bear. To take less of a cost increase and offer a plan with fewer benefits from what the government offers is not an option. Therefore the only choice we have is to drop insurance entirely for our employees.
Yeah I know the Socialists win and they get to point to greedy business owners for not stepping up and taking care of their employees. Good thing for employees that the government is there to look out for them and take care of them. We have decided to cap our costs and take what the company now pays towards insurance and do a universal hourly pay increase to every employee. As we paid 85% of our employees coverage they will all see a fairly substantial initial pay increase. We are paying that out to every employee even the few who did not participate in our insurance program. But then we are out of the insurance business.
Our insurance broker will meet with every one of our employees at our facility on company time and help walk them through their options for insurance and get them signed up well before our policy lapses as of October first. Sounds like a fair and reasonable alternative plan except for the fact that it still sticks in my craw and makes me mad every time I go over what seems to be the only logical path for the company to take. As much as I replay it in my mind I cannot come up with a better alternative.
I know what bothers me most and that is that the Socialists have won this one. Many other small businesses are in the same boat we are. Some have offered up that everything will be fine and my employees will be able to get coverage from qualified insurance companies through the government exchange and maybe that is so for the first year or two but even our insurance broker agrees that it will not last and insurance costs will continue to sky rocket and fewer services will be offered. In private and off the record they admit that even the big insurance companies admit that the system is designed to fail and will collapse. The big insurance companies have seen the writing on the wall and know the end is in sight for them so they are out to make all the money they can with new people being pushed onto the insurance roles. They know that the system is designed to collapse and lead to a single payer government program so make the money while you can. Besides the government has given the insurance companies a promise to subsidize them if all the extra benefits they have had to promise drops their bottom line so what do they have to lose.
Okay I have to just get over it and move on. If any of you see a better alternative path for my company to take just post it or PM me. And to the Socialists I have only two things to say. First you didn't build it we did. Second as FFDP said in Way of the Fist, "you might win one battle, but know this we'll win the f**kin war...
Well this year it is different and it looks like the cards are going to be on the table. Although our renewal date is not until end of September June is usually the time we start to review where we are and what we are going to do come October first. After several meetings with our broker it seems our choices are quite limited. We can keep our current insurance carrier and policy and take the expected increase which they are predicting to be in the range of 35 to 60% because there is a move in the legislature to allow companies to keep what they currently have but not to cap cost increases. We can move to a company plan on the "exchange" that government has sanctioned or we can just drop company coverage and get out of the insurance business entirely.
To try and keep our current insurance as it is if it is so allowed which is still unclear would mean a cost increase the company could not bear. Our broker believes the 45-60% increase even if we can keep it is likely. To try and keep it and pass the even half the cost of the costs onto our employees is a cost they cannot bear. To take less of a cost increase and offer a plan with fewer benefits from what the government offers is not an option. Therefore the only choice we have is to drop insurance entirely for our employees.
Yeah I know the Socialists win and they get to point to greedy business owners for not stepping up and taking care of their employees. Good thing for employees that the government is there to look out for them and take care of them. We have decided to cap our costs and take what the company now pays towards insurance and do a universal hourly pay increase to every employee. As we paid 85% of our employees coverage they will all see a fairly substantial initial pay increase. We are paying that out to every employee even the few who did not participate in our insurance program. But then we are out of the insurance business.
Our insurance broker will meet with every one of our employees at our facility on company time and help walk them through their options for insurance and get them signed up well before our policy lapses as of October first. Sounds like a fair and reasonable alternative plan except for the fact that it still sticks in my craw and makes me mad every time I go over what seems to be the only logical path for the company to take. As much as I replay it in my mind I cannot come up with a better alternative.
I know what bothers me most and that is that the Socialists have won this one. Many other small businesses are in the same boat we are. Some have offered up that everything will be fine and my employees will be able to get coverage from qualified insurance companies through the government exchange and maybe that is so for the first year or two but even our insurance broker agrees that it will not last and insurance costs will continue to sky rocket and fewer services will be offered. In private and off the record they admit that even the big insurance companies admit that the system is designed to fail and will collapse. The big insurance companies have seen the writing on the wall and know the end is in sight for them so they are out to make all the money they can with new people being pushed onto the insurance roles. They know that the system is designed to collapse and lead to a single payer government program so make the money while you can. Besides the government has given the insurance companies a promise to subsidize them if all the extra benefits they have had to promise drops their bottom line so what do they have to lose.
Okay I have to just get over it and move on. If any of you see a better alternative path for my company to take just post it or PM me. And to the Socialists I have only two things to say. First you didn't build it we did. Second as FFDP said in Way of the Fist, "you might win one battle, but know this we'll win the f**kin war...
