My current discussion topic response. Personally, I do not think that employer based health insurance is on its way out. As with any marketplace, private health insurance companies will have to become more stringent with client acceptance guidelines to stay competitive with the prices. The biggest issue I see is that the prices (and competition) are artificial. Either way, to create a burst of revenue to prepare for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), private insurance companies have begun offering early renewals to existing firms who currently use their services. This in theory will help them temporarily compete with this new “artificial” marketplace. Large employers who offer private healthcare insurance have already weathered the worst of the storm that the Affordable Care Act brings. This includes free preventative care, end of lifetime maximum limits on coverage, and having to cover employees’ kin until the age of 26. Small and medium businesses will probably feel the effects of the new ACA’s guidelines and regulations the most. Experts believe that small/medium business employees will begin to see significant rises in their premiums as well as new and creative staffing changes. These staffing changes will typically include downsizing, reduced hours, and restructuring. By performing these strategic changes, smaller firms will be able to avoid some of the new taxes imposed under the ACA as well as dodge the 2015 employer mandate that requires a company to buy insurance for its full time employees. If private health insurance fails or if the State Health Insurance Marketplace begins to dominate with low prices, will the quality of healthcare deteriorate? Without competition, what incentive does a healthcare system have to become more creative or produce new products/services? Will hospitals be more concerned with reimbursement as opposed to groundbreaking care? In the end, I feel like creating an artificial marketplace is a slippery slope towards Socialism. I will end this discussion with a quote from Thomas Jefferson that I feel we all need to remember when asking the government for assistance. “Experience hath shown, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 01:38:16 +0000
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