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I went from a job at a company whom provided insurance because they could get a pretty decent deal by bargaining with their 150+ employees, to a company who doe

I went from a job at a company whom provided insurance because they could get a pretty decent deal by bargaining with their 150+ employees, to a company who doesn't provide insurance because you can't really bargain with 9 employees. Luckily, the second job pays me enough to get insurance on my own and I still make more than what I did before, but if I had a family to think of that may not have been the case. For someone in that situation, it would likely be easier to make that jump because of the assistance the government can now provide to those who can't afford insurance on their own. Not to mention, when the exchange opens up in 2014, more small businesses will be able to provide insurance to their employees and those who absolutely can't take a job with insurance will have more options. Furthermore, with the tax credits small business will get for providing insurance to their employees, it might free up financial resources for business who already provide insurance to their employees, allowing them to expand their workforce.

ktsmith 17y ago
Small businesses not being able to provide insurance seems to be a bit of a state by state issue. I've worked for three small businesses in the last ten years. All of them offered significantly better health insurance plans than the large companies I've worked for. The largest of those small businesses had just five employees. The last company I worked for ended up dropping their insurance plan, but that was a desperate cost cutting measure on the way towards bankruptcy. It seems that similar businesses in California (I'm in Nevada) don't offer health insurance due to the cost. My wifes insurance currently covers my wife and son. It's prohibitively expensive to add dependents to the plan and it's actually worse than the plan I had previously. Her employer has around 3k employees. I keep seeing mixed arguments about the exchange. There doesn't seem to be any conclusive evidence that it is actually going to make health insurance more affordable for small businesses. The only thing that appears to make it more affordable is not the exchange itself, but the subsidies for small businesses that offer health insurance. That's just a cost shift to someone/somewhere else.

ktsmith 17y ago

Small businesses not being able to provide insurance seems to be a bit of a state by state issue. I've worked for three small businesses in the last ten years. All of them offered significantly better health insurance plans than the large companies I've worked for. The largest of those small businesses had just five employees. The last company I worked for ended up dropping their insurance plan, but that was a desperate cost cutting measure on the way towards bankruptcy. It seems that similar businesses in California (I'm in Nevada) don't offer health insurance due to the cost. My wifes insurance currently covers my wife and son. It's prohibitively expensive to add dependents to the plan and it's actually worse than the plan I had previously. Her employer has around 3k employees. I keep seeing mixed arguments about the exchange. There doesn't seem to be any conclusive evidence that it is actually going to make health insurance more affordable for small businesses. The only thing that appears to make it more affordable is not the exchange itself, but the subsidies for small businesses that offer health insurance. That's just a cost shift to someone/somewhere else.