Politically UnEZ

On the Eve of yet another Obamacare delay I am trying to sort out what will happen to my personal insurance coverage and the coverage of our key employees when our group policy renews in May and beyond.

With over 100 employees, some 90 of which are part time now, my key employees, 18 including my wife and I are fairly safe in our current policy.

Thanks to the absurdity of the mandates and the multiple delays, we are able to keep our current plan as long as we make absolutely no changes to it. The economics for our employees in us keeping our group plan works out very well; this year we will see only a 10% increase so that the average healthy late 20 something probably will still pay less than $300 /month of which we pay half. Of the 18 full time employees, only about 9 or so take advantage of this plan either because they are cover by a spouse, parent or are immortal. So far so good, right? Not so fast.

While it works out great for our 20 something employees who are smart enough to take advantage of the benefit, not so much for my wife and I. Thanks to O’Care, we have a decision to make. As members of our covered group, my wife and I, her a cancer survivor, me with moderate respiratory issues pay a hefty $28,000/yr for coverage. It now appears if we abandon our employees to the exchange and take out personal policies for my wife and I we can reduce our premiums by right at $14,000 / year? No kidding.

Our employees however will probably face massive increases in their premiums on the exchange and may end up uncovered given the ridiculous penalties which make it cheaper to pay them then to buy insurance. As a company we not only would save the $14k, we would also save the 50% co pay we were making toward our employees coverage.

Aren’t we worried about losing our key employees?
No, everyone is doing the same thing.
What about the penalties?
Nah, we get a pass on the first 30 employees and thanks to careful management for the last year, only have 18 full time employees.

Now thanks to Obamacare, our company could effectively save $20,000 / year at the expense of our employees.

Will we take this seemingly selfish move?
Probably, $20,000 is a lot of money. The other downside however affecting more than just our employees is that politically it plays right into the Democratic end goal of moving everyone toward a single payer system which will be the ultimate disaster for our healthcare system. … Another unexpected but planned consequence of Obamacare.

But wait, there is more redistributive good news this week Comrades. I received my auto policy renewal. It was just about a 100% increase. I had a minor fender bender in December. Rear ended my wife. But that is another story. Anyway, I was shocked at the increase for a minor event. But I was then told by my agent that the massive increase had nothing to do with the accident I had had 3 months earlier.

So why the incredible spike in premium? Remember Hurricane Sandy last year? Seems that our state was selected for these premium increases to make up for the losses that were sustained in the Northeast. I am still trying to figure out if it is just my carrier or a governmental program affecting all carriers. But check your renewals. Not that you’re likely to miss a 100% increase.

I’ll let you know via twitter how it works out.