Health insurance premiums are going –up, up and away
Thursday, August 12th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Ouch – I just got notice from my insurance carrier that that our premiums are going up over $620 a month for next year for our small family business and that is only for two families. I heard that another small business owner with 4 families was given notice that their premiums are going a whopping $2,000 a month. This increase on top of that a recession that is hurting most small business with lower cash flow with little or no recovery for next year on the horizon.
What are w
e to do? Do we raise our deductibles to $5,000 or so? Do we make our employees pay more? Are we forced to drop coverage altogether and pay what fines may be imposed by the government? Do we go out of business? Do we eliminate jobs to help cover the costs? How will the average family cope with the added costs? These are tough questions that almost all business are being forced to deal with THIS YEAR.
As I look at this from a family business point of view, I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. I need to have my family covered, but I need to increase our income in a very tough environment or lower expenses or a combination. I believe that every small business or self employed person are being forced to answer these very tough questions – Most businesses plan ahead for 3 to 5 years – but now many small businesses are trying to figure out how to pay the bills this month or the next 3 months to stay in business. Until we get a handle on this very important issue in my opinion very little hiring will happen in 2010 and perhaps into 2011.
What are we doing to solve this problem? We are looking at the following.
- Try to find some type of Co-op in order to reduce costs and stay at our current coverage.
- Increase our deductibles (to catastrophic coverage) and pray that nothing happens
- Open up some type of (health savings plan) to help pay for the small health related day to day expenses.
- Get and stay healthy – develop a plan that is workable for each family which may include:
- Taking supplements – I like a product that helps the whole body like mangosteen – I have found a good web site www.experience-mangosteen.com
- Learn how to treat small health issues at home when you can
- Develop a eating and exercise plan that a family can follow.
I would be interested to learn what other self-employed or small business owners are doing. So we all can learn together.