Small business owners in Massachusetts have ranked the cost of healthcare at or near the top of their list of concerns for more than a decade. Unfortunately, the costs continue to increase faster than inflation, and efforts to get the cost increases under control seem to always fall short of expectations. Many problems thwart the best efforts of policymakers to control costs, but the lack of consumer transparency about the costs of healthcare certainly contributes to the issue.
In an op-ed for the Lowell Sun, NFIB/MA State Director Bill Vernon and Retailers Association of Massachusetts President Jon Hurst wrote that healthcare consumers have no idea what their healthcare costs are, nor the difference in costs between Boston and community providers. And since the costs are covered by insurance, the impact isn’t felt until premiums rise. “For small businesses who pay between 50 percent and 90 percent of their employee’s premiums, the result is double-digit premium increases annually,” they wrote. “With no ability to lower such costs, the viability of these companies becomes endangered, thereby forcing them to cut jobs.”
The community hospital may become a more attractive alternative if patients knew the treatment would be closer to home, take much less time, cost less out of pocket, and result in lower insurance premiums, while still maintaining the quality of care. Also, hidden assessments add to the cost of healthcare. In fiscal year 2017, 11 assessments on health plans and employers increased costs by more than $250 million annually. Assessments paid for the Division of Insurance, healthcare safety net, the vaccine trust fund, 10 percent of the budget for the state’s Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, and on and on. Indirectly, all assessments are paid by the purchasers of health insurance: small business owners.
With the out-of-control spending on the state’s expanded Medicaid program and the uncertainty of continued federal support for healthcare spending, Massachusetts must get their healthcare costs under control or face a major budgetary disaster. NFIB/MA will support the Baker administration’s efforts to reduce costs for state and local governments and for small business owners so that resources can be allocated to business operations and growth.
