Survey/Self Insurance

We are on the 12th day of our survey and are approaching 1000 responses. We have responses from every county in California and getting some interesting results. The most surprising is that 74% of the respondents still have never heard of the small business tax credit available under the Affordable Care Act. This after almost three years since the passage of the ACA.

If you haven’t done so already please complete the survey. Please send link to others.

See link below.



http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/92WN2HY





Last year Senator De Leon introduced a bill to increase the attachment point[stop loss] to $95000 for businesses that want to self insure their health insurance for employees. Currently there are businesses which have as low as $5000 as their attachment point[stop loss]. In effect this means that businesses self insure up to $5000 and after that an insurance company pays the claims

Please see email from reporter asking for a contact of a small business that has taken up this self insured option. Please let me know if you have a self insured plan and would be willing to talk to Jay. I would also be interested to know whether you would support an increase in the attachment point.

The argument for doing this is that the self insured plans operate under a different set of rules and therefore there is adverse selection increasing the cost of insured plans. There are those that would argue that a $5000 attachment point is really not self insurance.

The argument for this is outlined in Jays request.



Hello:

I’m a reporter with Kaiser Health News (no relation to Kaiser Permanente!) interested in speaking with employers with fewer than 100 workers (ideally fewer than 50) who self-insure for health coverage. As you may know, the California legislature is considering limiting or eliminating the ability of small firms to self-insure for health care. I’m writing an article about this for USA Today and I’m hoping to talk directly with business owners who would be affected. Many small businesses find that self-funding allows more flexibility than with fully insured plans, and self-insurance will also let employers avoid many of the higher costs that will come in 2014 when the Affordable Care Act kicks in. I’m hoping to interview you about your self-insured plan. Why is it the right choice for your business? If the legislature eliminates your ability to self-insure, what are your alternatives? What are your views, if any, on Sen. De Leon’s bill to raise stop-loss points and eliminate the ability of very small employers to self-insure?

Please email me or call the number below. Thank you for your consideration.



JAY HANCOCK

Senior Correspondent

Kaiser Health News

1330 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005

JayH@kff.org
202.654.1328

www.twitter.com/jayhancock1



Who are we? A journalist-run news service covering health care policy and politics. We are part of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente. Our stories appear in newspapers and media outlets nationwide, including USA Today, The Washington Post, NPR and MSNBC.com as well as on our website: www.kaiserhealthnews.org



Scott Hauge

President

Small Business California

2311 Taraval Street

San Francisco, CA 94116

shauge@cal-insure.com

415-680-2188