General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObamacare Small Business Goldmine
by bunnygirl60
For progressives it is no new story that astonishingly malnourished messaging by the Obama administration compounded by egregiously misrepresentative coverage by the mainstream media has allowed an unending flow of air to feed the anti-ACA (Obamacare) gluttons. Personal, anecdotal stories, many against and a few supporting the ACA have been around for months. What has been lacking are the it worked for my small business stories so I thought I would throw this onto the table for general consumption.
I own a small manufacturing business and we have always provided health insurance to our employees. This has come at great expense to our firm as the cost of our policy increased by double-digit percentages every year. In recent years, much to our shame, we could no longer survive the full cost of the insurance so we had to pass twenty percent on to all participating employees. That percentage was, in turn, enough to cause several employees to have to drop coverage entirely. We were horrified and crushed but no amount of shopping around seemed to get us close enough to be able to overcome the huge mountain of cost. Ultimately, we ended up covering seven employees for a cost of, brace yourselves, $6570.58 per month!!! Please forgive me my scoff when I hear people complain about the high cost of their coverage under the ACA. Quality insurance has, for many years, cost an obscene amount and anyone who doesnt know that wasnt really paying attention to all the details.
So, what have we done under the ACA?
Well, we dropped our former policy, the group coverage, for our employees...and they are thrilled.
<...>
Our former policy was equivalent to a silver plan plan under the ACA Marketplace so we asked each of our employees to go on-line into the Marketplace and find the cost of their individual silver plan options. We asked them to print out that section (which contains no actual, private, information). We calculated the median cost of a silver level plan for that person. Each employee now receives, on their paycheck, a line item called Recommended Health Insurance Bonus which constitutes one hundred percent of the median silver plan cost, as described above, plus the extra needed to allow for the tax hit so that each employee truly nets out the necessary amount for the insurance.
Every employee can now elect, of their own free will, to purchase insurance (or not) and at what "metal level", utilizing the new bonus in the manner they feel is best suited for them.
Several things are notable about this.
1. We are now able to provide for 100% of the cost of insurance as opposed to eighty percent.
2. Because of where we are located, almost all the local providers of medical services are participating in plans offered through the ACA Marketplace so none of our employees experienced having to change doctors. (We were sure to check this prior to making the shift.)
3. The employees who were participating in the old policy and paying the 20% cost, no longer pay that deduction so they all received a net take-home raise (which several used to purchase gold level plans which are STILL much less expensive than what they were paying previously.)
AND NOW FOR THE BIG FINISH
Before the ACA we were covering seven employees at a cost of $6570.58 per month. Now we are providing for the coverage of eleven employees at a cost of $1863.76 per month. This is a savings of $56,481.84 per year!!!
...which we are using to hire a new employee and purchase some, much needed, new tooling.
The ACA is a boon for small business and we, for one, are using it to grow. Theres the small business messaging that is missing from, well, everywhere. Spread the word.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/16/1278140/-Obamacare-Small-Business-Goldmine
Note:
Ron Green
(9,823 posts)Every new hire: already covered. Health insurance cost for the business: zero. Extra taxes to fund the system: modest. Employees who stay in a job that's a poor fit, just for the health care: none.
sheshe2
(83,846 posts)You would prefer all to nothing?
It's a fact, single payer would never have passed.
Ron Green
(9,823 posts)Single payer is coming, but we've got to work for it. Here's what I'm doing: http://mvhca.org
State by state, it'll happen.
merrily
(45,251 posts)Massachusetts did not go single payer after Romneycare, but there is always hope.
sheshe2
(83,846 posts)Did you notice? Did you see what happened when everyone was complaining about a website? Single-payer got started in America.
Vermont is using authority granted under the Affordable Care Act to start a single-payer system. Most Americans still don't know what the phrase "single-payer" even means. It had little support in Congress in 2009 and Senate "Democrats" like Nelson and Lieberman even killed the public option. But, ACA had this sweet little provision that allowed states to set up a single-payer system and now people will see it in action. You know what that means.
As Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) opines, "The quickest route toward a national health care program will be when individual states go forward and demonstrate that universal and non-profit health care works, and that it is the cost-effective and moral thing to do.
Oh I know this is hard to swallow. Obama is third-way! He's dismantling the safetynet! A corporatist! He killed the public option!
Whatever else he is, Obama is a President who acts in a thoughtful, deliberate way that the chicken little headlines of the day often miss. As many predicted, ACA is already leading to the kind of transformative progressive change Obama promised. The progressive movement will be responsible for showing the nation how well single-payer works after the Vermont system goes into effect. When public and non-profit insurance becomes the national norm, we'll know where it began.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/24/1258135/-Obama-just-launched-single-payer-in-America
sheshe2
(83,846 posts)...which we are using to hire a new employee and purchase some, much needed, new tooling.
The ACA is a boon for small business and we, for one, are using it to grow. Theres the small business messaging that is missing from, well, everywhere. Spread the word.
Hellooooo Obamacare!
Doing what it does best! Great affordable healthcare, saving small buisnesses money so that can now not only cover there employees but hire more workers!
Thank you for the great update, ProSense!
ProSense
(116,464 posts)busterbrown
(8,515 posts)Thanks so much for posting this piece.
The article laid out incredible facts and did it clearly and concisely...
Kick this thing for a year...
ProSense
(116,464 posts)busterbrown
(8,515 posts)Crustiness problem..
I will amend now..
and Im jealous of all your hearts..
ProSense
(116,464 posts)I'm sharing them with you.
busterbrown
(8,515 posts)Are you allowed to copy and paste them?? LOL
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"Are you allowed to copy and paste them?? LOL"
...here you go, a half a dozen:
busterbrown
(8,515 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)scorpiogirl
(717 posts)My husband just started a job (finally!) that offers a catastrophic plan with a $7k deductible and 1 included doctor visit per year, nothing more, without meeting the deductible first and then it's 20% coinsurance. The employer pays $750 towards a $1,200+ premium. Oddly enough, this job was advertised as having "full benefits." Joke, meet punchline.
According to Covered CA, we qualify for a $263 subsidy and could get a silver plan for either $668 or $711/mo. I realize there are pre-tax whatevers, but honestly, if it comes down to a couple of hundred dollars at this point to get insurance so my husband can take care of some medical issues he needs looked at, I will make it happen. I say this as a person hopefully about to come off the worst five financial years of my life, barely dodging homeless for the last several months.
BTW, even the platinum plans were around his employers total premium cost, about $1,100 and change, at the top minus the subsidy. His employer is getting ripped off. He doesn't really seem to care enough to look into it.
Update: We didn't get the subsidy, not sure why and will find out, but final cost for the silver plan for our family of four is about $630. Less than his new boss's share he is paying for the catastrophic plan he offers. And he is disappointed that my husband said no thanks to his insurance. Duh. First time we'll be insured in over five years. And sooner (March 1st) than the three months we'd have to wait for the work insurance to start. What's not to like? I feel human again.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)Best to you and your family.