SMALL BUSINESS REACTION TO DOUBLE DIGIT PREMIUM INCREASES BY THE MIA
BALTIMORE (September 9, 2016): In response to today’s
announcement by the Maryland Insurance Administration (MIA) that they have
approved premium rate increases for both small group and individual health
insurance plans, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has
released the following statement:
Small business owners do everything they can to attract
and retain employees, often through benefits packages. Unfortunately, federal
regulation now prohibits them from offering subsidies for healthcare costs,
reducing their ability to compete with larger corporations and stifling their
potential to create more jobs for Marylanders and expand their businesses.
Considering that 41% of small business owner’s purchase
health insurance on the individual market, double-digit rate increases will
hardly go unnoticed by our members. Once again they will find themselves
scrambling to compensate for the increased costs instead of focusing on
long-term growth or creating more jobs.
The Affordable Care Act was supposed to solve healthcare
affordability for employers and employees alike. Instead, we find ourselves
facing significant premium increase thanks to a failed system. According to the
MIA, “significant changes in federal regulation” are to blame for the market
pricing instability. Not only is over-regulation by the federal government
negatively impacting the small business community, but it has also left our
state regulators with very little room to provide much-needed health insurance
cost relief.
