Key Quote: “As a company, we decided to do what we could to keep employee increases minimal. We had to gut the plan. Deductibles doubled or tripled. Co-pays went up. Plan value plummeted. … It seems all ObamaCare has provided our organization thus far is a distraction from our ultimate goal of growth and job creation.”
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By Stuart Herman, Legal Counsel/HR Director, E-Technologies Group
E-Technologies Group is a small-to-midsize business that has had average renewals over the last few years that we have seen creeping progressively higher after insurers started building in a cushion to cover the expense of implementing the initial stages of ObamaCare. This year our renewal came back at a 40 percent increase. We tried to price shop with different plans and carriers and the alternatives ranged from a 40 percent to 80 percent increase. Our employees were already paying a significant amount, although in line with national averages.
As a company, we decided to do what we could to keep employee increases minimal. We had to gut the plan. Deductibles doubled or tripled. Co-pays went up. Plan value plummeted.
The company essentially doubled our contribution, but still had to increase some of the employee costs, particularly at the family level. As a fiscally responsible company, we are directly moving budgeted funds from other areas of our company to avoid taking loans or spending beyond our means. Many initiatives for improving the employee experience had to be put on hold. Other parts of the benefit package were hurt, raises will be less than we would like, we are more likely to use short term employees or contractors for future hiring and at the end of the day, all of us are paying a lot more for plans that aren’t nearly as good as a year ago.
We investigated alternatives, as did our employees. Some employees were pricing plans on the exchanges, looking for catastrophic plans only as the insurance has become cost prohibitive for our younger workers who rarely use their coverage. However, those employees couldn’t leave our plan because our open enrollment and that of the exchange do not match. The company couldn’t provide a pre-tax contribution for them to use at the exchange. We are very handcuffed as to what we can actually do for our employees even if it’s supporting them heading to the exchanges.
Now we sit ten months from our next renewal terrified, unable to take on the same increase, and our employees cannot afford to pay more. Incremental preventive measures like additional focus on our wellness plan may help a percentage or two but they are only slowing the bleeding.
It seems all ObamaCare has provided our organization thus far is a distraction from our ultimate goal of growth and job creation.
Founded in 1993, E-Technologies Group is a West Chester-based engineering and information technology service company.
Romney care or as some call it “Obama care” was not about price reform. It is about getting everyone coverage, people like myself who could not get any coverage because of pre existing conditions had to default on huge hospital bills making the heath company write it off essentially passing the cost to everyone else, if all people are covered price should go done as long as no one is greedy and finds a loophole. Heathcare price reform was never debated because republicans stonewalled it to try and make the new policies fail.
But that is the problem….there is too much greed from the insurance companies. They are too busy trying to make a huge profit, especially at the very top level, especially for their CEO’s. Sorry…but there are some things where you should not make a huge profit! (A profit yes- but not a huge profit, nor a salary that is out of this world!). Politicians, big banks, insurance = the devil.
You can buy health insurance on your own from high quality insurance companies. Mine is only $325 per month with a $5,000 deductible. Do some research people! These policies cover annual exams. I bought mine at age 63 and I have high blood pressure. If you do have an event which runs your bill up to 5,000, you can pay the hospital back over time if you negotiate with them. Everything over 5,000 is paid by insurance. A high deductible plan is a good deal.
I am 59 and I have only had health coverage for a few years of my working life I do not have any health care now, I would never be able to afford it. I have been very healthy for all these years with only minor conditions that I am conquering on my own with nothing more than a proper diet and exercise. Other than dental care I have probably not spent more than $5,000 on healthcare including insurance payments in 40 years.
In an ideal world insurance companies would be redundant! or at least as non profit as possible when it comes to health care as are most hospitals, but being non-profit doesn’t mean they would let you off with a small bill for care.
The biggest problem is Pharma with extreme costs for treatments that in a lot of cases are no better than home remedies or old indian cures which cost almost nothing. Ask if there will ever be a cure for cancer or other problems that would cost less than$10.00? if there is such a thing ever it might just cost that to Pharma but they will charge a mere $10 million or more! and insurance will get a large share and not even talk about it, which has been happening and has been for a long time.
Things would be very different for everyone if only the USA had not been utterly and completely sold out by both parties to all the greed and corruption that exists!
Common sense will keep us all healthier than any healthcare plan.