Why Ohio Should Resist Expanding Mandated Health Insurance
For 25 years, the need for affordable health insurance has topped Ohio small business owners’ list of concerns. So with all of the healthcare changes that have been initiated at the federal level and with the Affordable Care Act setting the standards for most health insurance plans, Ohio should not further expand state-mandated health insurance coverage, which only drives up costs for small business owners. While there are no proposals to do so currently on the table, NFIB/Ohio expects six to 10 bills to be introduced over the course of the next two-year legislative cycle.
“State-imposed health insurance mandates only impact the fully insured market, which includes small businesses and sole proprietors,” says Chris Ferruso, NFIB’s Ohio legislative director. “These constituencies are arguably the most volatile markets and are disproportionately burdened when these mandates pass. Larger self-insured companies are exempt from any of these. We will continue to monitor the introduction and vehemently oppose any attempts to saddle our members with additional healthcare costs.”
New mandates end up pricing more small employers out of the market altogether, thereby hurting the very people the mandate was supposed to help.
This has been exactly the case for Tyeis Baker-Baumann, president of installation and fabrication company Rebsco, and her employees.
“Mandated health insurance benefits sound like a great idea on the surface,” she says. “I don’t disagree with the ideal of all persons having access to affordable healthcare. But mandating health insurance does not necessarily guarantee access to affordable healthcare. Access and affordability have never been, nor are they now, the same thing.”
Baker-Baumann provided a group health plan option for her employees for many years, but year by year, in response to increasing premium costs, Rebsco had to change the benefits of the plan, the percentage of the employee/employer contribution and other aspects of coverage to find something affordable for both the employees and the company. With the onset of the ACA, the rising premiums became more significant, especially for employees who are 60 and older, and this year even for the youngest employees. Consequently, Rebsco no longer offers a group health insurance plan, and the business is small enough to avoid penalty.
If Ohio continues to expand state-mandated health insurance coverage, stories like Baker-Baumann’s will only become more common.
“I would love to be able to offer my employees a solid group health insurance plan beyond a high-deductible, major medical policy,” Baker-Baumann says. “However, the continuing mandate pressure will more than likely make that unlikely and unavailable. What the average person does not realize is so many mandates really only financially impact small businesses. We bear the brunt of the financial burden of virtually all regulation. So I would expect I will be unable to offer a group benefit in the future. And I would expect there will be more companies, like mine, which will give up the effort and simply not provide health insurance benefits as part of the employee benefit package.”
