BRATTLEBORO — I do support health insurance for all, and Vermont has been way ahead of the rest of the United States in providing excellent insurance options with good coverage. “Obamacare” is bringing the same, better coverage to the rest of the country.
However, with 2014 almost on us and the demand of the Vermont Health Connect exchange, the small-business owner is really hit hard in several ways:
1. Sole proprietors and husband-and-wife partners will no longer be able to buy their insurance as a business but will need to sign up as individuals, thereby losing their federal income tax adjustment for health-insurance premiums.
2. Although the premium rates are comparable to the past several years - up approximately 4 percent - the maximum out-of-pockets (MOPs) go through the roof.
Our current plan - a preferred provider organization with Blue Cross/Blue Shield through VACE Insurance - has a MOP of $3,000 per individual or $6,000 per family -roughly equivalent to a Silver plan in the new system.
If you were to get really sick, the maximum out-of-pocket your family would pay in one year is $6,000 - not a small sum, but you wouldn't go bankrupt, either.
But in 2014, for any comparable plan on the Vermont exchange, the lowest MOP is $8,500, with other options up to a $12,500 annual MOP - that is more than a 41-percent increase.
And none of the plans will pay anything toward out-of-network coverage. (Current plans usually pay less toward out-of-network but would at least pay some percentage.)
The Green Mountain Care board has really done us a major disservice by approving these plans - the last thing we need to be facing right now in such a weak economy!
3. Subsidies: Get the facts straight. If you are a couple making more than $62,200 a year (your income if each person is making $15 per hour and works 40 hours per week - nothing too extravagant here), there are no subsidies.
So should I just work less or raise my rates and go out of business because the other small business that I work for will no longer be able to afford my services?
Once again the middle class is squeezed to pay for the bottom and the top. Extremely disappointing.
Vermonters deserve better choices than this - a major step backwards at the expense of hard-working small business owners!