"D K" wrote in message
...
Frogwatch wrote:
My thoughts on the concept of health insurance:
I really do not think the health probs of my employees is my business
except I want them to get work done. I got no problem if thye get
sick and take weeks off as long as they make it up or work at night or
weekends or any other time. There are timetables for stuff that have
to be met though.
I do offer to pay the premium on an 80/20 policy ($1000 deductible)
from IEEE but only one guy takes me up on that, the rest get their
insurance through spouses.
Frankly, I do not think their health insurance is my business at all
because I cannot get a policy that will meet the needs of every
employee. They are more likely to get a policy that meets their needs
on their own, I also cannot get any better rate for them than they
can get themselves. Consequently, having me buy a standard policy for
them simply adds cost and gives them a policy that is less beneficial
than they could get for less on their own.


I offer two plans through Aetna. The standard plan that most people have
and a "catastrophic" plan that has a $10,000 deductible. Only two are on
Plan B. The rest opt for the standard plan. I pay 50% of their premium
in either case. 100% dental, LTD, and a $15K life insurance policy. Not
bad for a small company.

Premiums will be up nearly 15% this year.

I haven't stayed current with the insurance programs here in MA, but when I
was active in the company we couldn't have split plans. As a small business,
we couldn't have a major medical (catastrophic) plan *and* a HMO type plan.
In fact, we couldn't have more than one health insurance provider. MA law
allowed the insurance companies to require 100% employee participation in a
single plan, (Harvard, Tuffs, Blue Cross, etc.) and the only exception was
for employees that were covered by their spouses plan.

This was (and maybe still is) a significant problem for a small business,
and often made the health insurance provider a major consideration for a
potential new employee, rather than the job responsibilities, pay and
benefits. Their current family doctor may not have been a participant in
the particular program the company was enrolled in and therefore would have
to change doctors in order to accept employment. This is my biggest beef
with having a business also being a health care administrator.

My other beef is the demise of major medical, catastrophic coverage. I
don't think it is available in MA unless the company is large enough to
self-insure. The popularity of HMOs and PTOs whereby a small co-pay is all
that is required for a doctor office visit is a contributing cause of the
health care crisis we have and the blame for that is squarely on us, the
consumer. We want cheap, and we got expensive. It would be far better to
have insurance for a major illness or injury and have to pay for a doctor's
visit to confirm that little Johnny indeed, has a cold.

I've written about this before. My company paid 75% of each employee's
health insurance premium under a Blue Cross HMO plan. At one point I did
an analysis that indicated it would be less expensive to pay 100% of the
cost for a Major Medical type plan, then reimburse every employee for their
non-emergency, regular doctor visits for them and their kids for check-ups
and colds. Of course, this was not allowed.

Eisboch