Small Businesses and America’s Affordable Health Choices Act


Image by Leader Nancy Pelosi
Myth: The House bill pays for health care reform with a “small business tax” that will kill jobs.

Fact: Small businesses benefit enormously from America’s Affordable Health Choices Act – Reform dramatically reduces small business health costs. The Small Business Majority recently released a report that showed that without reform, small businesses will pay nearly .4 trillion in health care costs over the next 10 years. If health insurance reform is enacted, the report found that small businesses could save as much as 5 billion over 10 years, nearly 36 percent. This money can be reinvested in the business and jobs.

Most small firms are exempt; others are subject to lower rates. 76 percent of all businesses are exempt altogether from the employer responsibility requirements. An additional 7 percent of these firms would pay a graduated rate of 2 to 6 percent if they do not offer coverage. More than 72 percent of firms with payrolls of 0,000 to 0,000 and less than 250 employees already offer worker health coverage today – and will have better options under HR 3200.

Obama's Health Care Law Penalizes Marriage, Analysts Say
And Sara Collins, an economist who analyzes health insurance for The Commonwealth Fund – a private foundation that aims to improve health care in the country — added that "when the law is fully implemented, US families will have new, affordable, …
Read more on Fox News

Affordable, High Quality Health Care: The Cure for Our Economy
Meanwhile, debates over health care reform center around legal challenges to the Affordable Health Care Act, a ponderous Democratic sponsored document with measures that are mostly irrelevant to providing either affordable or quality care. …
Read more on Huffington Post

Be careful of cuts to hospitals
Healthcare is currently one of the only job creators. Big Medicare trims by the congressional 'super committee' would also jeopardize care and affordable insurance. Healthcare is the one sector actually creating jobs, especially in hospitals. …
Read more on Los Angeles Times

A future of broken promises on health care
Hard times continue for the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). The administration has scrapped the law's long-term care insurance program covering nursing homes and home health care. The program was deemed unrealistic. This is a harbinger. …
Read more on Washington Post

Iowa families will see 90 benefit by 2019 from federal health-care reform
DES MOINES – Both insured and uninsured Iowans would see a financial benefit once the federal Affordable Health Care Act is fully implemented in 2019, a Washington-based nonprofit consumer health-care advocacy group reported Thursday. …
Read more on Eastern Iowa Government

Question by renne o: How do you find affordable health insurance?
I have a friend of mine who lives in Florida. He had open heart surgery a few years ago. After the surgery was done, the Dr walked in the room and told my friend he really never needed the surgery to begin with. He is trying to find health insurance and he is having trouble finding it because of his heart condition even though now he doesn’t have one. Most of the health insurance companies want more then $ 1500 a month to insure him. How does he find affordable insurance in the US?

Best answer:

Answer by Heather
if he’s not had any heart problems for that long then by law the companies can not count that as pre-existing! according to the portability act they can’t go back more than a year for pre-existing. have him call his local Blue cross blue shield of Florida and get a price quote. the only thing that can be pre-existing is care/treatment within the past year…

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Affordable Health Insurance! You Will Save Hundreds Per Month On Premiums. It Takes 5 Minutes To Get The Quotes That Will Save You 40% On Your Current Premiums. www.comparemedicalinsurance.info Quotes Are Quick And Easy…You Will Save Money. Everybody Deserves Affordable Health Insurance. Free Quick And Easy Health Insurance Quotes…That Will Give You The Most Affordable Health Insurance Available.
Video Rating: 0 / 5

Billy Mays- iCan Benefit Commercial
Video Rating: 4 / 5

As employees face higher co-pays, deductibles and health care premiums, a relatively new insurance product has become increasingly popular.

It’s known as “gap” or “bridge” insurance, and it covers some of the out-of-pocket health care costs that are becoming more difficult for employees to shoulder, such as annual deductibles that are rising to $1,000, $2,500 or even $5,000.

Families that live paycheck to paycheck can’t absorb the increase in costs, said Brad Peak, vice president of products and marketing with the insurance carrier Assurant Employee Benefits in Kansas City, Mo.

Who pays for it Many of the products are sold through the workplace with employees paying the full cost. Other times employers pick up the tab, most often coupling lower-priced, high-deductible health care plans with the supplemental gap coverage to ease the sting of higher out-of-pocket costs.

The trend is moving toward the $2,500 deductible, Peak said. Assurant views that as the “sweet spot” that makes gap insurance attractive to employees on a budget.

Some companies have also found that it can be cheaper to switch to a high-deductible health care plan and pay for gap coverage than to pay for a lower deductible, he added.

Not all sold on coverage. Some employee benefits experts, however, question the value of gap insurance. It can be expensive for what it offers. Some limitations on coverage for pre-existing conditions can make it useless for someone with a chronic medical problem. And the rules may be prohibitively restrictive, such as limiting reimbursement to patients whose conditions require hospitalization.

Brett Haugh, a partner with Employee Benefit Solutions in Houston, which designs employee benefit programs for client companies, said some of the policies are sold using high-pressure methods that rely on describing worst-case scenarios.

Haugh said the policies can be pricey, with about 50 cents of every dollar going toward the broker’s commission, and companies that offer the coverage tend to be restaurants and hotels or motels that rely on lower-paid employees.

“Big exploration and production companies don’t have this stuff,” he said.

Spring Branch Independent School District offers gap insurance that is not subsidized by the district. The coverage pays a lump sum benefit of $1,500 in the event of a hospitalization and $50 toward one medical test a year, according to the plan materials.

Fewer than 5 percent of district employees enroll, district spokesman Steve Brunsman said.

Much of the interest in gap insurance comes from businesses that aren’t big enough to self-insure but want to provide coverage for 10 to 250 employees and dependents, said Michael Chapman, a broker with Group Benefits Advisors in Dallas.

Chapman said his clients, some of which are in Houston, have been particularly interested because they’re facing the second or third consecutive year of big insurance cost increases.

“It’s forcing them to shop a little more,” he said.

Policies vary, and gap insurance may make sense for some customers.

AlphaStaff, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company that manages human resources for client companies, including some in Houston, offers employees of its clients a plan that just provides gap coverage for in-hospital care.

That’s where employees incur the biggest costs and where the premiums are the most affordable, said Dorothy Miraglia, principal of strategic benefits for the AlphaStaff.

One AlphaStaff client covers the entire cost of the gap supplemental coverage, she said. The others offer it to employees but don’t subsidize the cost.

Who signs up depends on the underlying medical care plan, Miraglia said.

Gap insurance attracts 20 percent to 25 percent of employees whose medical plans carry high deductibles — anything greater than $500, she said. They pay $12 to $18 a month for individual gap coverage and twice as much for a family plan.

But for folks whose deductibles are $250, gap insurance doesn’t make as much financial sense.

lm.sixel@chron.com

Google News: Health Insurance Tab