I read the front page article in the Nov. 10 issue of Tire Business about tire dealers and business owners being concerned over health insurance.
My health plan renewal was on Oct. 1, and this was the highest increase—18.7 percent—I have had since being in business for 33 years.
The bottom line is this: For those of us who have been providing our employees with good hospitalization insurance, we're now paying a lot more in premiums for plans that pay less from the insurance companies and more out of our pockets. Because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)—also known as “Obamacare”—the insurance companies no longer offer plans that pay out like the plans in the past.
If you go to the federal government's Healthcare.gov website and view the plans outlined there, it boils down to one thing: Except for preventive maintenance visits that are paid for by the insurance companies, the insurance companies are getting away from paying for anything until you reach your deductible. That deductible may be as high as the maximum out-of-pocket cost.
It seems to me that the main thing anyone buys on the healthcare exchanges are plans that require that you pay as you go until you hit your high deductibles, and then they start paying 70 to 80 percent until you hit your maximum out-of-pocket cost. Therefore, the policies mostly help when you have major medical problems and end up in the hospital, which keeps you from only owing your max out-of -pocket.
I think we all can agree that our healthcare system needs changes, just not in the way the government and politicians did it.
Also, your hospitalization costs for your employees include the cost to help pay for “Pediatric Dental” for those on the healthcare plans in the exchanges. I have Anthem Healthkeepers through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Virginia and they list that cost separately for each employee on my bill.
This cost does not go for Pediatric Dental for my employees' children. It goes to pay for Pediatric Dental on the Obamacare plans.
The ACA is so screwed up that only idiots could have written this plan—and likewise for those who passed it into law.
David Dance
Owner Cartech Tire & Auto
North Chesterfield, Va.
Clover Hill Tire & Auto Center
Midlothian, Va.