As the full enactment of Obamacare approaches, there are many factors that business owners know to look out for.
- Do I need to provide health insurance to my employees?
- Should I go to an exchange?
- How will the mandate impact my business and profitability?
- How much are my health insurance premiums going to go up?
These are all questions that many business owners are starting to look. Below are some points that you may not have thought of that should go into your business planning.
We all know that health insurance premiums are expected to go up, but do you know how much? Small groups (2-99 employees) can expect to see price increases between 20% and 50% upon the full enactment of reform. When factoring in medical trend, taxes and fees, carrier and product changes and the introduction of community rating, your premiums will jump significantly. As a small business owner, asking your existing broker for a quote is not going to solve this problem as it will require a new method behind providing employees with health insurance. The objective of a health insurance plan should not be to carry you over to the next year with as little pain as possible, but to address your company’s healthcare expenses for the long term. You need a road map that will allow you to offer affordable coverage to employees while keeping costs in line.
Some employers are looking to drop plans in order to remain profitable. Unfortunately, this is not the answer either and can cause more pain than gain. With the Supreme Court upholding the individual mandate, all Americans will be required to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty. The cost of obtaining coverage for individuals is expected to jump 100% – 200% with an average increase of 116%. This is going to push many employees who either have individual plans or would ordinarily look at obtaining individual plans to go to their employer to obtain coverage. By not obtaining small group coverage, you risk losing your talent to other companies who are willing to absorb the cost. This can result in the loss of business and inevitably impact the bottom line more then not offering coverage at all.
The federal funding for health care reform is already facing challenges that will impact all small business owners. In the deal that was reached in the fiscal cliff debate, an agreement was made to cut the remaining $1.9 billion dollars that was set to fund Consumer Oriented Operated Plans (CO-OP’s) through the Affordable Care Act. $1.9 billion was already spent to fund the creation of CO-OP’s. These will remain in place; however no more federal money will be used to create any additional CO-OP’s at this time. This is another example of where the Obamacare bill has been modified in order to maintain its functionality. This will lead to higher costs in term of premium and taxes for small business owners and individuals seeking health insurance in the short term, to cover the high costs of implementing the systems and covering up all other budget shortfalls that would have ordinarily paid for these costs.
