The ramifications of fining companies that don't provide coverage for their employees
Companies that don't provide healthcare coverage for their employees will be fined. The fines would be up to two thousand dollars... per employee! Small business (companies with 25 employees or less) will get a tax credit that would cover anywhere between 35 to 50 percent of the cost of providing coverage for their employees. Large companies (50 or more) would be subject to the fines. The first 30 employees would be exempt from the fine. What's this going to do? Cause a lot of people to lose their jobs! If I'm a company of 30 employees, with this bill I now have to provide all of my employees (not just full time employees) with insurance and I'm not eligible for the tax credit because I have too many employees! Ok, say good bye to five employees. That cuts my healthcare costs and qualifies me for the tax break. Of course, if I'm a small business of 12 and I'm working really hard to stay afloat that 50% tax credit isn't going to do me as much good as it may seem. I've got to front the cost of the coverage for my employees and then wait for tax time to learn that I'll be sending less money to the IRS. That's not money the government is giving me. That's more money going out of my business that I might have been using to pay for supplies, or another employee. "Sorry, Jimmy, I have to let you go because I have to provide healthcare for everyone else."
The bogus claim that this bill will somehow decrease health care premiums
There is no possible way this bill will decrease people's premiums. Healthcare providers can no longer refuse coverage. That's like telling auto companies that they can't decline policies. What would happen to your auto policy if the company you were with was forced to accept the risk of all of the reckless 19 year olds? Well, the insurance companies would charge them more, right? Insurance is "shared risk." Sure they'd charge the 19 year olds more but do you really think the insurance company is going to recoup the $400,000 they just paid out by charging the inexperienced youthful drivers $3,000 a year? Just a little calculation for you: it would take over 100 years for the insurance company to get the money it paid out. That means they are increasing your policy as well. Here's another reason this bill will not decrease premiums. With this bill, it's not legal for insurance companies to charge sick people more than well people. "Great! Those sick people will really get a break!" There was a school system that wanted to give it's best teachers a bonus. The teacher's union said, "no no! If you give them a bonus you have to give all of us a bonus. We're a union, you can't treat us differently." The school system agreed and didn't give anyone a bonus. This will happen here. "Oh, we can't charge the sick more than the well people? Ok, guess what well people, you are now paying what the sick people pay." If this doesn't happen, health insurance companies will go out of business. (perhaps that was one of the goals of this legislation.)
Please keep reading on the next post:
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