Sunday, November 15, 2009

The Massachusetts Model: Destroying Small Business

“It almost seems like they’re trying to push out the small employers.... historically the biggest engine of job growth in Massachusetts.... It makes it impossible to grow. Every time you want to hire employees, your health costs go up.’’

Is that what you REALLY WANT as a NATIONAL PLAN, America?

I guess that's why you are going to get a "jobloss recovery."

Related: The Massachusetts Model: Screwing Small Business

And are they ever TAKING IT TO THEM this year!!

"Small businesses bridle at health insurance hikes; Many told to expect double-digit jumps" by Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | November 15, 2009

.... At a time when both the state and the nation are struggling to rein in health care costs, many small businesses in Massachusetts say they’re receiving the largest premium increases in years for their Jan. 1 renewals.

Related: The Massachusetts Model: Comes At a Premium

Insurers in September said they expect to raise premiums an average of 10 percent next year, but some employers are facing increases that are double or triple that - or even higher.

While all of the state’s health insurers have been jacking up rates for small businesses, which lack the negotiating might of larger enterprises with hundreds or thousands of employees, some of the steepest increases have been coming from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts. The Boston insurer, the state’s largest, has in the recent past offered lower base rates than many of its rivals.

Allen P. Maltz, Blue Cross executive vice president and chief financial officer, acknowledged that premiums are climbing - largely, he said, because of double-digit rises in medical costs.

As for the small employers that have received the steepest increases, “something else is going on,’’ he said. Their mix of employees may have changed, with younger workers let go during the recession, leaving an older workforce that costs more to cover....

According to Blue Cross, the majority of its customers have been redesigning their plans through “buydowns,’’ which use higher deductibles and other features to shift more of the cost to employees. While it has not completed setting its rates for next year, Blue Cross estimates that small businesses that change their plan designs, and have a “stable’’ age mix in their workforces, will see average premium increases of 10 percent to 12 percent.

But NO SINGLE-PAYER, never!!!!

For those that choose to keep their current more generous plans, the insurer’s estimates are closer to 15 percent to 18 percent.

Yeah, those health insurers are real "generous," huh?

Businesses receiving increases of 25 percent or higher, Maltz said, are outliers that typically are trying to stay with their current plans despite having some kind of change in the demographics of their insured. He declined to discuss the cases of individual customers.

Which means he is FULL of SHIT!

And those POLITICIANS with the GENEROUS, TAXPAYER-FUNDED PLANS?

Not outliers!

Yup, MORE MONEY for WORSE COVERAGE!!!

The MASSACHUSETTS' MEDICAL MIRACLE!!!!!!!!

“The main driver in insurance premiums is the cost of health care,’’ Maltz said. Another factor, he said, is the state universal health care law, which has compelled insurers to merge newly insured individuals - a high-cost group - into small-business insurance plans....

Worried about costs?

Talk to price-gouging Partners!

Related:

"The state report shows that while healthcare reform has extended coverage to thousands of people in Massachusetts, many employers still rely on state programs to provide healthcare benefits for their workers.... Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, is the top company on the list. The state found 5,021 Wal-Mart employees used state health coverage at a cost of nearly $14 million in the 12 months ended June 30, 2007.... --more--"

Isn't it nice to know that YOUR PREMIUMS are SUBSIDIZING Wal-Mart's profits, Bay-Staters?

Maltz acknowledged that Blue Cross lost money in 2008 on some high deductible plans for small businesses. But he strongly denied the insurer is trying to make up for it now with higher premiums. “Each year stands on its own, and we try to set the rates right,’’ he said. “We never try to set premiums to recoup losses from a prior year.’’

What a LIAR!!!!

But that is small comfort for businesses faced with huge jumps in their insurance rates....

Dan Greenbaum, president of a research firm in Boston, who’s been told to expect a 35 percent jump. Greenbaum’s research firm, Health Effects Institute, already pays about $14,000 per employee to cover its 25-person staff. The proposed 35 percent increase by Blue Cross has sent the firm scrambling to look for an alternative plan or carrier. Greenbaum, whose firm studies the health effects of air pollution and helps to set emissions standards around the globe, said he and his management staff have had to take time away from research to focus on the arcane details of insurance changes.

Does the Globe ONLY KNOW AGENDA-PUSHING SOURCES that are JEWISH, is that it?

“We feel whipsawed by whatever the insurance companies do,’’ he said. “We obviously can’t just eat a 35 percent increase,’’ he said. “I just don’t understand how they can come forward with that. It almost seems like they’re trying to push out the small employers.’’

:0

With government capping reimbursements for Medicaid and Medicare, health care providers are seeking to make up the difference from private insurers, who pass the higher costs onto businesses. “There’s a cost shifting going on,’’ said Vincent M. Graziano, vice president at the benefit consulting firm Segal Co. in Boston, which advises larger employers. “Small business usually bears the highest costs because they don’t have the same clout as the big companies.’’

Yup, and THIS SYSTEM STINKS!

How insurers set rates for employers, including small businesses, is one of the subjects of public hearings being held throughout November by the state Division of Insurance....

Yeah, THOSE SURE have been KEPT QUIET by the MSM.

Still, small businesses, historically the biggest engine of job growth in Massachusetts, are crying foul....

Bob Carroll, owner of a Billerica distributor of paint spraying equipment, recently got some really bad news from Blue Cross-Blue Shield: His company’s health insurance rates are going up 47 percent in January. Carroll, for example, reduced the workforce at his paint equipment business from 11 to seven workers as the economy slowed.

“We bear the brunt of all cost increases,’’ said Carroll, president of Norris Wiener/Bay State Spray Equipment in North Billerica, which sells machines that coat and finish anything from golf balls to furniture. “It makes it impossible to grow. Every time you want to hire employees, your health costs go up.’’

Related:

"the Globe implemented a turnaround plan this year that included closing the Billerica printing plant"

Just thought I would mention it.

Carroll said his company already has responded to the proposed Blue Cross premium increase by switching to a competing insurance carrier, Fallon Health Plan of Worcester....

Yup, and they ALL MADE PROFIT except for Fallon!

FLASHBACK:

"Three health insurers post profits; Quarter shows rebound after earlier losses" by Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff | November 14, 2009

Three of the four largest health insurers in Massachusetts swung back to profitability in the third quarter, after all four posted second-quarter losses.

Did you swing back to profitability, Bay-Stater?

Job losses still increasing, right?

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts Inc.’s HMO Blue subsidiary lost $3 million. But as a whole, the Boston firm earned $17.1 million in the quarter on revenue of $1.6 billion. That’s off 70 percent from the same period last year, but much better than the second quarter of 2009, when Blue Cross-Blue Shield lost $33.6 million. The company has lost a total of $53.2 million so far this year. The insurer’s chief financial officer, Allen Maltz, placed much of the blame on unusually severe outbreaks of influenza in February, June, and September, in addition to the rise of the H1N1 flu pandemic. “We have all the normal seasonal flu expenses, and then we have H1N1 on top of that,’’ said Maltz.

Hey, I DIDN'T GIN up a VACCINATION CAMPAIGN so PHARMACEUTICALS could get RICH!

In addition, the economic downturn has caused many older workers to stay on the job instead of retiring. That means the average age of employees at companies that offer Blue Cross-Blue Shield plans has risen. “An increase in the average age of the population leads directly to increased medical costs,’’ said Maltz.

Should I just crawl into a hole and die, or.... ?

I mean, I'm costing the health system profits, so.... ?

Tufts Health Plan in Watertown posted net income of $22.1 million on revenue of $644.5 million. That’s an improvement over the $17.3 million earned in the same period last year. During the first nine months of the year, the plan earned $8.8 million on revenue of $1.9 billion, but during the second quarter, Tufts lost $204,000....

They are still playing with house money!

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care in Wellesley reported net income of $13.6 million on revenue of $684.1 million, compared to a $2.3 million loss in the second quarter, and income of $23.8 million in the third quarter of 2008.... In the first nine months of 2009, the insurer earned $8.3 million on revenue of $2 billion.

Fallon Community Health Plan in Worcester reported a $13.4 million loss for the third quarter, on revenue of $283 million, compared to a $5.7 million profit last year. So far, the plan has lost $16.3 million in 2009, on $831 million in revenue. “Our results show that we’re not immune to the economic challenges Massachusetts is facing,’’ said chief financial officer Charles Goheen in a prepared statement. Goheen cited as factors inadequate medical reimbursements from state and federal governments, higher-than-expected insurance claims, and a continued increase in medical care costs. --more--"

Looks like they were the only unlucky ones, huh?

Hope you plan survives, Bob.

And Sandy Bouchard, chief financial officer at Coady’s Towing Service in Lawrence, is trying to fathom a 28 percent hike - an extra $58,000 - in 2010. “We’re a small company, and that’s a huge raise,’’ said Bouchard. “How much more can you expect an employer and its employees to contribute?’’

They DON'T CARE! it is the STATE we are talking about!!!

--more--"

Related:
Sure you want to use us as a model, America?
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