Day of reckoning: unaffordable small business premium renewal

By NYCeve (Eve Gittelson)

I received a phone call the other day from a close friend. He owns and runs a small business. We Americans are told that small business is the backbone of the U.S. economy.

He wanted my advice about his health insurance. He had just received the annual renewal notice. His voice was as subdued as I’ve ever heard. He began by saying, “this can’t be correct, it’s got to be an error.” But I knew better, I knew it was accurate.

“They’re hitting me with a 22% increase”, he stammered.

“So what’s the number?” I asked.

“Over $1800.00 a month for me, Marianne and Marc”. He chuckled, “I thought Obama was going to help us, what the hell is going on? When will we see some relief?”

Most Americans are dangerously underinsured with junk insurance.

So I laid out his really bad options.

I told him to increase the deductible, increase the co-pays, and lower the reimbursement for out-of-network providers, and he could probably reduce the premium increase from 22% to around 10-12%. I also explained that by doing this, he’d be moving deeply into the land of the dangerously underinsured.

He laughed some more. “Only a 10% increase, how lucky, but business is down 30% this year”.

When the dreaded annual premium renewal arrives, scaling way back on health insurance, and going to what amounts to a bare bones policy, has become the only path most Americans can take. The choice is to become dangerously underinsured or drop insurance entirely.

My friend received this bad news as we’re learning that the White House may be in negotiations with Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, to either abandon the public option entirely, or subject it to “triggers”. How many more triggers do we need, to know that the for-profit insurance industry has no intention of being a responsible corporate citizen?

Last night at the Bill Pascrell town hall which I attended at Montclair State University, Congressman Pascrell asked Kelly Conklin a small business owner to address the gathering.

He too had just received a renewal premium. The unruly crowd actually stopped screaming for the few minutes Conklin spoke. He said, every year, he offers his employees more meager health benefits, and now he’s at the breaking point. He made the point that he is a business owner, who has been forced to make life and death decisions for his small band of employees.

Life and death decisions? When the day arrives that he can no longer afford the skyrocketing premiums, he will be forced to cast his employees into the dangerous world of the uninsured. This is a monumental life and death decision.

Ask Kelly Conklin and other small business owners about triggers.

Unless a robust public option is a part of healthcare reform, Kelly Conklin and millions of other small business owners will really have to pull the trigger. They will pull the trigger and give up entirely on employee health benefits. They’ll have no choice, you can’t pay for something you can’t afford.

3 comments

Pamela on September 05, 2009 at 8:59 PM says:

I totally understand this situation. My parents had a small business for many, many years. I worked for them for about 10 years. They employed less than 10 workers at any given time. They finally retired around 2004 and sold the business. But in the late 80's, they had to quit supplying health insurance coverage for their employee's, because they could not afford it even then. They struggled with the decision, because their employee's were like family. My father always tried to be giving and fair to everyone, but on this issue health insurance became simply unattainable to supply.
My opinion is, no business should have to supply healthcare, for anyone. It is only a burden for business. That is why we need a single payer system in this country!

Wendy Fleet on September 07, 2009 at 12:08 AM says:

Triggers! This is so heartbreaking, nyceve.

I wrote the following on triggers re the horrible quisling NYT Editorial today (09.06.09) which threw public option under the bus:

We've already had 40 dismal years of the medical-industrial-complex failing to hold costs down. Consider *the fierce urgency of now* the trigger and proceed to develop a sturdy and decent public option. Without public option, it is treacherously faux reform, evilly abandoning millions of sick people to the cold mercies of the Vampire Wealthcare Corps. Or bankruptcy. Or dread. We should fend for one another.

It's already trigger time. Ye gods, I can hear the slitherer Nevilles now -- "Even that liberal bastion the New York Times calls for a trigger." Senator Snake-in-the-Grassley could hardly use more barely coded jellyfish jargon. It's shameful and sickening. Fie!

This "bargain-away the public plan" is even worse in its consequences than printing Judith Miller's lickspittle ersatz "reporting" pre-Iraq war.

President Obama has one sentence which would change history: "As LBJ said of Medicare, I say, 'I will fight for public option as long as I have breath in my body.'"
...
nyceve, Your tireless fighting to inform is a total inspiration and reminds me to Press on, regardless.

elfchen on September 07, 2009 at 9:31 PM says:

Dr. Dean's chart indicates that Adler of New Jersey is for the public option. That, unfortunately, is not true. He has recently declared himself not in favor of it at a Town Hall. My friends and I feel betrayed by him. However, my own representative is Rob Andrews, who helped to write HR 3200. I am proud of him and assume he will not cave. Co-ops will not bring down costs. They are a gift to the insurance companies. And when will it be unlawful to off high-deductible major medical policies with limitations on doctors and hospitals! They are highway robbery policies. I will ask my daughter to move to Canada if Obama fails us on this issue.