I own a small business and pay 100 percent of health insurance for my employees. There have been several letters to the editor about the presumed effects of Obamacare, and each cites individual employee experience. Generally employees do not see the entire cost, only what is deducted from their paycheck, so when they say, “My cost went up” it may be that their employer just passed on more of the cost to the employees. The actual cost of the insurance may have gone down or stayed the same.
Starting in December, my company’s costs go down substantially (by 26.98 percent) for exactly the same coverage. In the three preceding (pre-Obamacare) years, my health insurance costs increased by 8.67 percent, 12.22 percent and 9.53 percent. In 2014, I will be paying slightly less than I paid in 2009 for identical coverage. From my perspective, looking at all the numbers, I fail to see the negative effect of Obamacare on actual costs to provide coverage.
Kenneth Campbell
Vancouver
