Obamacare Will Increase Healthcare Premium Costs for 65% of Small Businesses

Didn’t Barack Obama say that Obamacare was going to lower costs … Guess who lied again?

As reported at the Washington Post and direct from CMS, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 65% of small businesses are expected to experience increases in their premium rates while the remaining 35 percent are anticipated to have rate reductions.” According to the report, 11 million American workers will be faced with higher premiums. CMS released the report on Friday with little fanfare. Neither the HHS website nor the CMS website shows a news release or public notice about the report. Imagine that. No one is saying that there did not need to be some adjustment to the delivery system of health care insurance, however, penalizing 65% to benefit the 35% was and is not the answer.

Nearly two-thirds of small businesses that currently offer health insurance to their workers will pay more for coverage as a result of new rules in the health care law, as will millions of small-business employees and their family members, according to new estimates released by the Obama administration.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which has spearheaded the implementation of the law, has acknowledged that new rules requiring insurers to offer guaranteed coverage and renewal options to small employers will likely drive up the price of insurance for some companies. So will rules banning insurance companies from varying their rates based on factors like a company’s industry or the age of its employees.

“We are estimating that 65 percent of the small firms are expected to experience increases in their premium rates while the remaining 35 percent are anticipated to have rate reductions,” CMS’ Office of the Actuary wrote in a new report. Conversely, “the effect on large employers is expected to be negligible,” because most large companies run their health insurance programs in house.

Some premiums will be reduced; however, the overwhelming majority of individuals, some 11 million, will see their premiums increased. Mind you, this is just small business, we are not even discussing businesses with more than 50 employees.

Consequently, according to the estimates, which the agency says are based on industry research and conversations with insurance experts, roughly 11 million of the 17 million individuals who have health care plans through a small employer will see their premiums increase as a result of the law, while 6 million people will enjoy lower premiums.

If accurate, it would continue a steady climb in insurance costs for many small businesses. Ninety-six percent of small businesses say their premiums have increased in the past five years, with the average monthly insurance cost soaring from $590 per employee in 2009 to $1,121 in 2014, according to poll released earlier this month by the National Small Business Administration.

Imagine being penalized for having a healthy work force? One would think that programs implemented by a business like “Healthy Life”, would lower insurance premiums, not raise them. Nope, not with Obamacare. This is all part of the distribution of wealth.

The six-page document looked at companies with fewer than 50 workers that offer employee health benefits, but it calculated health care costs in a hypothetical way – leaving out the impact of government subsidies that are specifically geared for small businesses.

Without factoring in government subsidies, CMS concluded that 65% of those small businesses would see an increase in premiums.

Why? The report found that those companies had been paying below-average premiums, thanks in large part to having younger and healthier workers. But under Obamacare, neither pre-existing conditions, nor the lack of them, can influence the cost of premiums. So those small companies with healthier workers will see premiums rise to match the average for all workers.