More Small Businesses Offering Health Care To Employees Thanks To Obamacare

[Swede]

The first statistics are coming in and, to the surprise of a great many, Obamacare might just be working to bring health care to working Americans precisely as promised.

The major health insurance companies around the country are reporting a significant increase in small businesses offering health care benefits to their employees.

Why?

Because the tax cut created in the new health care reform law providing small businesses with an incentive to give health benefits to employees is working.

http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/01/06/more-small-businesses-offering-health-care-to-employees-thanks-to-obamacare/

[Cleita]

1. Yes, private insurance.

There still will be the underinsured and the denial of benefits because putting the foxes in charge of the hen house never works. We need Medicare for All and we need it yesterday.

[Tippy]

2. K&R.....

[Botany]

3. The truth hurts doesn't it Boner?

"Obamacare" works :rofl:

now move on to a single payer national health care system

[enlightenment]

4. They are offering health insurance - not health care.

Is it insurance that the employees can afford to use? Is it insurance that offers real coverage instead of a sticking plaster and a hardy 'good luck with that'?

The LA Times article linked in your Forbes article includes one line with a few specifics. Unfortunately, while it looks relatively reasonable from the outside, there are still too many details missing to make an informed decision as to whether or not these small businesses are able to afford plans that provide actual coverage at a price the employees can afford:

Now, Firquain is offering her 10 chefs a standard individual preferred provider organization plan with a $1,000 deductible and $30 co-pays. The employees pay $67 to $212 a month, depending on age and gender.

http://www.latimes.com/health/healthcare/la-fi-health-coverage-20101227,0,5024491.story

It's nice that this business owner is offering her chefs an option of health insurance, but looking at the little information provided, red flags appear; "depending on age and gender" is enormously problematic - particularly the 'gender' portion - but even more than that is what isn't discussed. What kind of coverage does the policy provide? What sort of restrictions does it place on coverage? How much more would it cost the employees to cover their spouse and/or children every month?

The devil has always been in the details and singing hosannas in articles like this doesn't change that. Please note that in no portion of the article does the author address any aspect of health care - the arguments he makes are based purely on financial benefit to the companies involved.

I realize that the President has chosen to appropriate the term 'Obamacare' - thus making it A-OK to use . . . but frankly, all the term does is point out that CARE is really not covered in this new law.

[Trey9007]

5. I was thinking the same thing. But.....

the fact employees are actually signing up for these plans, is a pretty good indication, to me, that these plans may be good plans. Of course we cant know for sure what these plans contain, unless we had more details abot the plans. But the fact workers accepting the plans leads to me think the plans are, at least, decent.

[defendandprotect]

6. +1000% ... and taxpayers through these tax breaks are once again subsidizing private insurance

companies -- !!

Agree -- we need MEDICARE FOR ALL ... yesterday!

[ThomCat]

7. Unfortunately,

looking at the insurance plans offered,

Those plans cost more and offer less. The copays are increaseing, and feature growing "co-insurnace" charges.

If you aren't familiar with co-insurance charges, they are common in new and low cost insurance plans. A co-insurance charge means that you have to pay a set percentage of all costs. Usually it starts out at 50%. The more expensive your plan the lower that percentage goes, down to 20%

So, if you have to get an MRI, and it costs $1700, and you have a 50% co-insurance charge on your plan, that one MRI will cost you $850 out of pocket, plus your deductible,

If you are like a friend of mine, a single visit to an Orthopedist could cost you,

$ 35 (Co-payment for doctor's visit)
$125 (50% co-insurance charge for the doctor's visit)
$850 (50% co-insurance charge for a single MRI)
$ 85 (Co-payment for medications)

$1095 total for 1 visit to the doctor, with insurance.

This is insurance that cost several hundred dollars per month, btw. So you need to have some money to afford to have this insurance, and if you don't have quite a bit of money saved up you won't ever be able to use this insurance.

To get an insurance plan that reduces the Co-insurance percentage down to only 20%, expect to pay up to $600 per month. Many companies are no longer offering any plans that doesn't have a co-insurance rate.

So if this is what insurance companies are offering, we all need to be wealthy in order to use insurance even if we have it. What good does it do to have insurance that we aren't wealthy enough to use?

We need health care reform that offers real health care, not bankruptcy for anyone who gets hurt or sick! Simply giving someone an insurance plan isn't victory, and isn't any kind of solution if this is what the insurance industry is going to be allowed to do in response!

Many of us warned from the beginning that insurance was not the same as health care!

I told you so!

[Trey9007]

8. ??????

"looking at the insurance plans offered,

Those plans cost more and offer less. The copays are increaseing, and feature growing "co-insurnace" charges "


I didn't see any info in the article that included what kind of plans were being offered. Where did you find the information?

[ThomCat]

9. I found that information by researching insurance plans.