Health care reform helping small businesses

The latest reports are that the health care reform has made it more affordable for small businesses to offer health insurance to their employees. So much for the misinformation by conservatives that the health care reform was a death knell to small businesses and was a "job killer".

"In the six months after the law was signed in March, UnitedHealth Group Inc., the country's largest insurer, added 75,000 new customers who work for companies with fewer than 50 employees. The Minnesota company called the increase notable but declined to reveal further details.

Coventry Health Care Inc., an insurer in Maryland that focuses on small businesses, signed contracts to cover 115,000 new workers in the first nine months of this year, an 8% jump.

In California, Warner Pacific Insurance Services in Westlake Village, a major servicer of insurance brokers, has seen business grow more than 10% this year, a company executive said.

And Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, the largest insurer in the Kansas City, Mo., area, is reporting a 58% jump in the number of small businesses buying insurance since April, the first full month after the legislation was signed into law.

The independent nonprofit insurer has been particularly aggressive in marketing the new tax credit, which can mean a discount of as much as 35% for very small companies with low payrolls.

"One of the biggest problems in the small-group market is affordability," said Ron Rowe, who oversees small-group sales for the insurer. "We looked at the tax credit and said, 'This is perfect.'"
http://www.latimes.com/health/healthcar ... 4491.story

Not to worry....the Republicans will repeal it, and once again they will hurt the very entities they claim to want to help in the name of partisanship. We need to understand that the repeal is not because it's a bad bill....it's because it's a democrats bill, pure and simple.

Pretty sure they are stretching the truth with those #'s to get the gullible people to fall for it.

Like the conservatives are gullible enough to believe the crap coming from Limbaugh, Beck, FauxNews, ad nauseum....

More Small Businesses Offering Health Care To Employees Thanks To Obamacare
By RICK UNGAR / Jan. 6 2011

The first statistics are coming in and, to the surprise of a great many, Obamacare might just be working to bring health care to working Americans precisely as promised.

The major health insurance companies around the country are reporting a significant increase in small businesses offering health care benefits to their employees.

Why?

Because the tax cut created in the new health care reform law providing small businesses with an incentive to give health benefits to employees is working.

"We certainly did not expect to see this in this economy,” said Gary Claxton, who oversees an annual survey of employer health plans for the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. “It’s surprising.”

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, the largest health insurer in the Kansas City, Mo. area, reports an astounding 58% increase in the number of small businesses purchasing coverage in their area since April, 2010-one month after the health care reform legislation became law.

“One of the biggest problems in the small-group market is affordability,” said Ron Rowe, who oversees small-group sales for the Kansas City operation for Blue Cross Blue Shied. “We looked at the tax credit and said, ‘this is perfect.”

Rowe went on to say that 38% of the businesses it is signing up had not offered health benefits before.

http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/ ... obamacare/


Wow, who'd-a thunk it? And from that left-wing source, Forbes.com ....

Really....I belong to many small business associations. A vast majority are dropping insurance right now, not adding it. This story needs Paul Harvey. Could it be that people are switching from their other insurance to United Health, since UH is considered a very cheap alternative to good insurance?

RenegadeCJ wrote: Really....I belong to many small business associations. A vast majority are dropping insurance right now, not adding it. This story needs Paul Harvey. Could it be that people are switching from their other insurance to United Health, since UH is considered a very cheap alternative to good insurance?

really.....where did you get the idea that United is considered a cheap alternative to "good" insurance? Hearsay? heard it "somewhere"? or everybody just knows that? For many, any insurance is better than no insurance, and what many employees of small businesses have is nothing.

Oh....I don't particularly like United health, they certainly have their issues......but if I only had the choice of them or nothing, yeah i would take it.

More small businesses signing up for healthcare insurance for their employees. Thanks Obama, for the those of us who still have jobs, how about the health insurance for the people who still need jobs? And were told by Bernanke today that they will be jobless for a few more years.

Yes, my opinions on United are hearsay. Never claimed otherwise.

What I have seen is companies dropping healthcare, and dropping employees. I know not one who has added insurance "because of Obamacare". Why would they? The "benefits" haven't kicked in yet.

Don't overlook this part of the article posted.

"We looked at the tax credit and said, 'This is perfect.'"

Tax credit means Assistance by the Government. Isn't that the trap? So it still comes down to a Government takeover and higher ultimate costs to those who pay taxes.