Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Just the Facts

It's no news that lack of affordability is the main reason many small business owners don't offer health coverage to their employees. It's not that they don't want to provide it --  they do. But unlike big businesses, small firms continue to face premium rates that are unpredictable in nearly every sense -- except for the guarantee that they will always increase.


That's why June 28 was a day for the small business history books. The Supreme Court ruling to uphold the Affordable Care Act protects a number of benefits that are helping offset small businesses' costs as they brave the tumultuous health coverage market. Provisions such as rate review and Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) have already resulted in lower premium costs and cash back for small employers. Millions of small businesses in 42 states will get rebates for part of their coverage costs in August because their insurers failed to spend 80 percent of their premium dollars on patient care and quality improvement as required by the MLR rule.

On top of that, the law's health insurance tax credits for small business owners with fewer than 25 full-time employees are helping hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs who offer coverage save money on their health care costs. With those savings, they are reinvesting in their businesses and even creating new jobs. Now that the law's fate is no longer up in the air, eligible small business owners can look forward to 2014 when the maximum amount of the tax credit increases from 35 percent of their premium costs to 50 percent. And companies with with fewer than 50 employees are NOT REQUIRED to pay for health insurance for their employees, and if you have less than 25 you will get a tax credit to help pay if you choose.
So what's wrong with that. The fear campaign continues by the Republicans.
The answer is really simple the Republicans believe health insurance should not be provided by the goverment and every country in the world does now.

4 comments:

Baxter said...

McConnell has been caught on camera admitting that Obamacare will be very hard to repeal, even with a GOP victory this fall. The Senate can use reconciliation to defund the ACA, but it will take 60 votes to change the insurance rules - the MLR that Terry mentioned, as well as the requirement that insurance companies take all comers, no lifetime limits, and no cancelled policies for getting sick.

In that context, would the GOP remove the mandate penalty/tax? How would their insurance companies/contributors feel about that? How could insurance companies meet their new ACA obligations if (healthy) people get to ride for free?

Obamacare is here to stay and will be politically untouchable once implemented. Like the rest of the world, Americans will laugh at our current health system.

Jim G. said...

You should read more....

Because the ACA does much more than just reform "issues" in health care...it transforms health care.

The President could have, with bipartisan support, reformed health care, he instead, while clearly lying, "if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor", took over health care which will make a bad situation worse.

Please, O' great minds, show me the health care system, in a country as large as ours, which works better under government control. While your at it, please show me a government program which works better.

Energy management, Education, TSA, all these are poorly run and would be and are better run when outsourced.



Lastly, I'm continually amazed how you two so quickly give away your freedom, you don't understand that when the government controls healthcare, it controls your body, your lifestyle and can make rules and regulations as it pleases.

Then of course, you two, like the President, are Socialists, and wish for such calamity.

Baxter said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Baxter said...

Obamacare/ACA doesn't take away any freedom whatsoever. I'm sure that Mitt Romney would agree. The Heritage Foundation should be commended for promoting the individual mandate - the personal responsibility tax.

We have the 37th best health care in the world and pay 50% more than our peers. That is why no country in the world is pursuing the American model of health care. It is broken, it is a joke, and finally it is materially changing. We are moving to a model that serves more people at less cost - like the rest of western civilization.