Health Care reform is broken before it even starts. I don't know any other business owners who feel that Obama Care will be good for them and their employees. What a shame.
3M, a company known as being a top place to work by its employees, is one of the first to make a decision to drop retirees from private insurance plans. Late last week, McDonald's, one of the countries largest employers sent some signals that their employees coverages were likely to change as well.
Read the Article: 3M Co. will drop retirees from health plans, steer to Medicare.
. 3M is bound to its shareholders to make the best possible decisions based on the impending and current laws of Obama Care and the impact to its employees and business. And it looks like it did. I think this is the tip of the iceberg as companies start to assess the economic impact of the 2,000 page (unread) bill.
Have you assessed the impact to your business?
Think about what is going on here. Our businesses and employees will be paying taxes into a system over the next several years, with no services provided until 2015 (or 2014?). And, what the government did was send a signal to insurers and related businesses about what their potential business could look like by 2015, under a government managed healthcare environment.
In football, Its like knowing your opponents plays ahead of time.
From my discussions with other CEOs, we all agree that many, if not most, of the insurers realize that they will not make money (for themselves, employees, or shareholders) when Obama Care starts... SO... they are ratcheting up their premiums NOW!
One CEO friend of mine who pays 100% of his employees healthcare told me he received a 45% increase in premiums and was told to expect similar increases until Obama Care starts.. and THEN... his insurer will most likely exit from supporting or covering his business!
So to my fellow CEOs, expect some surprises for the next several years. Our providers will be deciding whether they will continue insuring us, and in the meantime, will drive strong price increases to protect themselves for the time when Obama Care services go into affect.
No one argues against covering pre-existing conditions or healthcare for all americans.
We have to remind ourselves that the government is supposed to be providing us with services that are needed. And we must realize that the government has rarely, if ever, demonstrated that they can provide efficient, effective and tightly budgeted and responsive services. (Look at the Post Office, Social Security, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, etc.).
So, over the next four years, we will not only be paying taxes for services we will not be receiving for many years to come, just to fund Obama Care, but we will also be subjected to increased expenses, beyond the current industry price increases due to the expected healthcare economics under Obama Care.
As a CEO who cares about my employees and others, we need to review and probably repeal Obama Care. But first, carefully evaluate the impact to your current and future healthcare costs and what impact that will have on your payroll and bottom line.
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