Lancaster County NFIB Member Gets Slammed by Obamacare

Date: December 12, 2016

Cheryl and Dan Hendrickson, the owners of Detailing Technology of Manheim, Pennsylvania, used to offer their 13 employees a small-business health care plan. The couple’s story of how Obamacare has impacted their business, their employees, and also their family, puts the failure of that law into sharp focus. 

As the couple built their car detailing and body shop business they began by offering their employees very good health coverage with the cost of the premiums split between the company and its workers. Even though It became harder as health care costs rose, and some workers opted out of insurance as their portion of the premiums went up, the company continued to offer the benefit.  That was until the Affordable Care Act became law.   

In the first year of Obamacare, the Hendrickson’s small business insurance plan was canceled. While they searched for an alternative, they decided they would no longer offer coverage to their employees, most of whom no longer wanted the benefit due to rising employee contributions and deductibles. So they found a plan just to cover their family. 

Each insurer they chose has canceled the family’s plan every year since. And every year they set out once again to find another affordable plan.  By 2016 the plan for the couple and their daughter cost $971 month with a $12,900 deductible.  The family only satisfied about $1800 of that large deductible but felt they had no choice.  If there were a medical catastrophe, they could lose the small business they had worked so hard to build.

In recent weeks Cheryl got a notice that the 2016 plan they had would not be renewed by the insurer next year. For a comparable plan, they learned the price would rise from $971 a month to $1800.  The deductible would still be sky-high. With no affordable alternative, the couple has just signed up for a short-term, non-compliant health plan with very limited coverage.  Cheryl says it’s a bold move to buy such a limited plan with so many exclusions, but they couldn’t take the risk of not purchasing any insurance. 

The Hendrickson’s, who are businesses owners, feel they are caught in the middle, as they are among a growing number of tax payers who don’t qualify for a subsidy, nor do they meet the 8% government health insurance cost maximum.  To meet that maximum, their family would need to earn well over a quarter of a million dollars a year.

The Hendrickson’s sincerely hope that Obamacare is repealed and replaced so they might be able to offer their employee’s health care coverage once again in the future.

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Cheryl Hendrickson of Detailing Technologies, Inc.

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