More small businesses offering health benefits

[Greenbeard]

For context, almost a quarter of the nation's uninsured work at very small businesses (<25 employees), which are the least likely businesses to offer health benefits. This weekend, the LA Times checks in on how the new tax credit to help those employers cover the costs of health coverage is working out.

Major insurers around the country are reporting that a growing number of small businesses are signing up to give their workers health benefits, a sign of potential progress for the nation's battered healthcare system.

The increase, although not universal, has brought new security to thousands of workers, many of whom did not have insurance or were at risk of losing it.

An important selling point has been a tax credit that the nation's new healthcare law provides to companies with fewer than 25 employees and moderate-to-low pay scales to help offset the cost of providing benefits. The tax credit is one of the first few provisions to kick in; much of the law rolls out over the next few years.

"We certainly did not expect to see this in this economy," said Gary Claxton, who oversees an annual survey of employer health plans for the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. "It's surprising." [...]

In the six months after the law was signed in March, UnitedHealth Group Inc., the country's largest insurer, added 75,000 new customers who work for companies with fewer than 50 employees. The Minnesota company called the increase notable but declined to reveal further details.

Coventry Health Care Inc., an insurer in Maryland that focuses on small businesses, signed contracts to cover 115,000 new workers in the first nine months of this year, an 8% jump.

In California, Warner Pacific Insurance Services in Westlake Village, a major servicer of insurance brokers, has seen business grow more than 10% this year, a company executive said.

And Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, the largest insurer in the Kansas City, Mo., area, is reporting a 58% jump in the number of small businesses buying insurance since April, the first full month after the legislation was signed into law.

 

[Revere]

It would be nifty if all Obamacare was about was using tax breaks to make insurance more affordable.

But it's not, is it?

 

[TossObama]

Blue Cross/Blue Shield and it's subsidiaries happen to participate in full range Obama Care.

You need to be very careful who you get health insurance from unless you want to end up being treated like a piece of meat.

 

[Greenbeard]

Blue Cross/Blue Shield and it's subsidiaries happen to participate in full range Obama Care.

As do the small employers using the ACAs new tax credit to offer health benefits to their employees, it would seem.

 

[William Joyce]

I know someone in business for himself (lawyer) with two secretaries. He pays $9K a year for health insurance PER SECRETARY, plus $5K a year per secretary for payroll tax.

That's BEFORE they get paid!

Holy SHIT!

If you ever wonder why it's hard to be a business owner, here's a clue...

 

[uscitizen]

My last employer whom I got insurance thru a year and a half ago charged me $750 per month per helath ins for my wife and myself.

Cobra was over $1,100/month from them.

 

[Willis]

In this era of intense business competitions every business has to offer more to attract man power and customers . So all business and even small business also offering health care benefits to its employees.

 

[editec]

It would be nifty if all Obamacare was about was using tax breaks to make insurance more affordable.

But it's not, is it?

There aren't enough tax breaks in the small business world world to pay for HC.

Back when HC didn't cost an arm and leg, those might have helped, but today truly small businesses often don't net enough profits (hence pay enough taxes) that a tax break would make the difference.

And FWIW, business has ALWAYS (meaning in your and my lifetimes) been able to write off HC insurance as an expense so it has always been a tax break.