Do you find it as interesting as I do that a law meant to help people without health insurance obtain that insurance creates so many darned losers?
(Las Vegas Review Journal) Local business owners might be hoping the Affordable Care Act’s insurance mandates cover sticker shock.
The law’s employer coverage mandate doesn’t take effect until 2015, but early plan renewals are starting to roll in. And for some businesses, the premium jumps are positively painful.
Local insurance brokers are reporting spikes ranging from 35 percent to 120 percent on policies that renew from July to December. The increases are especially acute among employers with workforces made up of younger, healthier men. That’s because Obamacare prohibits offering lower rates to healthier groups. It also narrows the allowed premium gap between older and younger enrollees.
“It’s like if there were no more safe-driver discounts with State Farm,†said local insurance broker Frank Nolimal of Assurance Ltd. “Everybody has the same rate, whether you have three DUIs, or you’re a (nondrinking) churchgoing Mormon.â€
The changes put as many as 90,000 policies across Nevada at risk of cancellation or nonrenewal this fall, said Las Vegas insurance broker William Wright, president of Chamber Insurance and Benefits. That’s more than three times the 25,000 enrollees affected in October, when Obamacare-compliant plans first hit the market.
A few things to note. First, are they considering this to be 90K people potentially losing their plans, or 90K small business policies? If it’s the latter, small business policies would certainly cover a multitude of workers, meaning considerably more than 90k people would potentially lose their coverage.
Second, the article notes that many small businesses with deep pockets could potentially eat the extra costs, ones like professional white collar firms. But those on lower skilled and blue collar work could easily see their companies say “nope. Not paying the large increase”. And those that do keep the plans would surely pass the extra costs on to workers, which would mean less take-home pay and less disposable income.
Third, Nevada is a microcosm of what will surely happen across the country as the mid-terms approach.
Fourth, it’s funny how the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” ie, Obamacare, is causing so many problems for those who already had health insurance rather than helping those who did not have insurance and want health insurance obtain it.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts looks like it’s going to scrap its health insurance exchange website software, like Oregon did, costing taxpayers even more millions of dollars.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
