Michael F. Cannon
via GlennBeck.com
8/17/2010
How will ObamaCare affect a small business owner who’s married with two kids?
For one thing, he and his business will pay higher health premiums beginning this year.
He and his employees will have to purchase unlimited lifetime coverage and unlimited annual coverage (this requirement phases in between now and 2014). The Obama administration estimates that these mandates alone could increase premiums for some businesses by 7 percent.
He and his employees will have to purchase coverage for dependent children without any waiting periods for pre-existing conditions. Another mandate will require them to purchase coverage for dependents up to age 26. One private estimate puts the cost of this “slacker” mandate an average of 2 percent, but our small-business owner’s premiums may rise even more. Perversely, the cost may force him to drop dependent coverage entirely.
If his health plan loses its “grandfathered” status—as most small businesses will—he and his workers will have to purchase 100-percent coverage for a long list of preventive services. The administration estimates this mandate will increase premiums on average by 1.5 percent, but private estimates are in the range of 3-4 percent.
The Obama administration also acknowledges there is “tremendous,” “substantial,” and “considerable” uncertainty about these mandates’ costs. That is, they may be higher than the administration says…
…But it’s 2014 where things really get messy. That’s when the government will require everyone to purchase even more yet-unspecified types of coverage, which will cause premiums to rise even more.
If our small-business owner has 50 or more employees – or fewer full-time employees and lots of part-timers – he faces the prospect of tens of thousands of dollars in penalties under ObamaCare’s employer mandate if he does not provide “adequate” coverage to his workers.
The worst part is that these penalties will be triggered by factors that are unpredictable, unobservable, and totally beyond the control of our small-business owner. He could get hit with those penalties simply because a worker’s spouse loses or changes jobs. Or if a worker’s spouse moves out or dies. Or if an employee’s parents move in.
This creates so much uncertainty that a small-business owner with 55 employees may have to fire six of them just to eliminate that potential liability…
Read the rest at GlennBeck.com
Michael F. Cannon is director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute and co-author of Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It.
Update via GatewayPundit, Workers will pay more for health care starting NEXT YEAR.
