Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Senators, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Thank you for the opportunity to present you with information about health care costs and accessibility and how it impacts on my small businesses and employees.
My name is Ken Weinstein and I own two restaurants, Cresheim Cottage Cafe and Trolley Car Diner in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia, not far from where Senator Specter and his wife live. I am proud to be able to provide jobs to more than 80 people in my community.
Like many small business owners, I live near my businesses. I am very involved in my community and I have strong personal connections to many of my staff.
I consider myself a fairly typical small business owner with simple beliefs. On a daily basis, I balance the priorities of making a reasonable profit with treating my employees right. Lately, this has become less than easy. The economy is down. Our revenues are down. And our costs, led by health insurance rates, are up!
When I first opened Cresheim Cottage Cafe 8 years ago, we didn’t think twice about covering all of our managers and chefs. We were able to buy “top of the line” Blue Cross/Blue Shield single coverage for less than $150 per month. And what great coverage: $2 co-pays for doctor’s visits, no network and with a full prescription plan!
And we were able to enroll our cooks, dishwashers, servers and bussers in a basic health plan for just $60 per month – coverage that no longer exists today.
Now, I am able to only cover half of our managers at more than $280 per month for single coverage. And worse, to control costs, we had to drop Blue Cross/Blue Shield to go with a lower quality health insurance company that pushes us into a network. Co-pays for doctor’s visits has increased from $2 to $10 per visit and prescriptions from $5 to $35. And all these added expenses came with an 87% increase in enrollment cost.
At the Cottage, health care coverage for managers used to be automatic. Now it is negotiated as part of the compensation package.
At the Cottage, I used to automatically renew our policy each year. Now, I am forced to price out health insurance each year creating uncertainty and employee fear that the new policy will not cover their specialized doctor or situation.
At the Cottage, this is the last year that we will provide full 100% coverage for our managers. Next year, managers will be asked to pay in for their health coverage.
When Trolley Car Diner opened just three years ago, we covered our managers for $584 per month for family health care. Each year since, we have lessened our coverage, offering our employees higher deductibles, higher co-pays and less flexibility. On January 1st of this year, we payed more than $800 per month for inferior family coverage.
On February 1st of this year, the Diner’s health insurance rates were increased by 61%. When I called the company to ask why, I was told that one of my managers who had a back problem, spent $3,900 for doctor’s care. The company’s response is understandable except that we paid more than $10,500 to the health insurance company during the year. I was assured by a different person at the company that it was not a mistake. They just saw us as a future health care risk.
I don’t know the solution to our current health care crisis. But I do recognize the problem. We are paying more and more for less and less coverage. I am frustrated, my employees are frustrated and my employees’ families are frustrated.
The current crisis is hurting my employees and hurting my businesses. We don’t need tax cuts. We need a better quality of life for our cities and the working people who live there!
