Small Businesses Face Steeper Healthcare Bills

It’s critically important that everybody in Connecticut be able to afford healthcare. But several proposals in the legislature could push healthcare beyond affordability for many small businesses and their employees.
Employers that help their employees pay for health insurance could be stuck paying for even more benefits and taxes next year, producing a bigger bill.
Mandates Will Cost
Lawmakers are considering a number of new health benefit mandates that will require smaller employers to buy plans that cover more procedures and services therefore making them more expensive.
While the legislature does not estimate the fiscal impact of legislation on Connecticut’s employers they analyze the fiscal impact on state government.
Fiscal notes reveal that these bills will cost the state from about $40,000 to $4 million each–and there are about 10 of them.
Healthcare Taxes, Too
More healthcare taxes are also under consideration.
SB 955 will move about $8.8 million worth of programming from the General Fund to the Insurance Fund. This means instead of all Connecticut taxpayers footing the bill for these programs just health insurance carriers will be responsible.
Instead of absorbing the nearly $9 million in additional costs, carriers will simply pass the costs onto smaller employers–for yet another hit to your next health insurance rate.
Last year the legislature moved $3.2 million to the Insurance Fund to pay for the State Innovation Model. That bill is initially being paid for by insurers and then passed along to employers in the form of higher premiums.
With the Insurance Fund set to take an even bigger hit this year this is turning into a pattern of steadily increasing the cost of healthcare on smaller employers.
Connecticut’s smaller employers already face high health insurance costs which make it very challenging to continue to help their employees pay for health insurance. New mandates and more taxes only exacerbate the existing challenge.
For more information about healthcare and talent issues, contact CBIA’s Jennifer Herz at 860.244.1921 | jennifer.herz@cbia.com | @CBIAjherz
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