Brokers Leaving Market, Groups Falling Out

[Ann H]

But I think small group is going to go under and large group will be few and far between for the most part.

More likely Obamacare is going to go under.

In my area (AZ) businesses are preferring Employee Benefits to "sending employees to the exchange". Also, the tax favored status of group plans is more attractive that subsidies in most cases.

Agents in some other regions of the country are reporting different results, especially in blue collar industries.

 

[TonyC]

More likely Obamacare is going to go under.

In my area (AZ) businesses are preferring Employee Benefits to "sending employees to the exchange". Also, the tax favored status of group plans is more attractive that subsidies in most cases.

Agents in some other regions of the country are reporting different results, especially in blue collar industries.

Thanks Ann.
I assume this is for the Management Personel and not the grunt workers.

 

[hamben]

The ACA has made offering group health insurance to employees financially irresponsible regardless of the employees income level. Anyone who sales group health insurance please explain to me what happens if an employee gets so sick they can't work. Can they keep there insurance?

 

[hamben]

Is that what you tell people with your license full and properly disclosed? you say yes and then everything after yes was a NO you can't keep your health insurance. Well before January 1 that was a problem. Believe me losing your health insurance 18 months into your cancer claim is devastating. How about a small employer with 5 employees and his wife gets cancer and he sales his business to stay at home and take care of her. Can he keep his small group insurance ? Again that would be a NO the ACA law has removed these barriers. Why would an employer offer insurance to employees when it will simultaneously disqualify every employees family's from potentially qualifying for thousands of $ in tax credits. I think the employer,can use the funds that were previously spent on health insurance in much more beneficial ways. But that would take trained agents to teach them the alternative. Sorry group guys you are going to have to get off the golf corse and go to work. We need more agents in the industry as over the next 10 years the employers migrate from the old group plans to personal portable individual plans...

 

[Quotebroker]

​

Believe me losing your health insurance 18 months into your cancer claim is devastating.

Then they can get an ACA compliant individual plan- isn't that the place you are saying you want them to be in the first place? Why is it devastating? Perhaps because you're forced onto the smaller ACA network?

​

Why would an employer offer insurance to employees when it will simultaneously disqualify every employees family's from potentially qualifying for thousands of $ in tax credits.

Because not everyone works the low income market. My white collar groups won't benefit from the subsidy.

Dave, while you didn't want to get into Prudent Buyer vs. Pathway, it's one of if not the biggest issue in the group vs. indy discussion. Speaking of having cancer while on a group plan- I'd sure rather have cancer with a Prudent Buyer network than a Pathway or Pathway X network. I even had a client of mine this week who is a cancer patient ask how they can get on the prudent buyer network. Her doctor brought up the name. When I told her she can't get it, she asked if she could buy a second health policy in addition to her first so that she could see both her cancer doctor and her surgeon. How many people pre 2014 broached the idea of paying for two separate PPO plans?

 

[hamben]

I never changed the question I asked an additional question. The original question was if you get so sick you can't work can you keep your group health insurance plan. You said yes. I think you meant no. You get transitioned to a short term cobra for termination. Now as far as your example with the low wage earners, you think they are better off having there employer pick out a plan they can't keep if they get so sick they can't work or if they lose there job or quit...they don't qualify for sep unless they have extinguished there cobra eligibility. Really tell me how these low income earners are going to pay the $1,200 a month cobra premiums in hopes they make it to,the next open enrollment. The original post on this thread was from someone asking if group insurance is still going to be around. You are trying to defend a non defendable position. Group health insurance is dead and the ACA law is like the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs . The ACA law gives small employers a huge competitive advantage over large employers and this will set our nation free. Finally a competitive advantage for the little guy..

 

[Quotebroker]

Bottom line is that it is a situation that is different for each individual employer. and there is no one-size-fits-all answer (although it appears you are trying to create one).

This, this, a thousand times, this. Each client has their own needs. For every one that fits in a neat little box, there's another one with weird extenuating circumstances that require a different solution.

 

[hamben]

​

Then they can get an ACA compliant individual plan- isn't that the place you are saying you want them to be in the first place? Why is it devastating? Perhaps because you're forced onto the smaller ACA network?

​

Because not everyone works the low income market. My white collar groups won't benefit from the subsidy.

Dave, while you didn't want to get into Prudent Buyer vs. Pathway, it's one of if not the biggest issue in the group vs. indy discussion. Speaking of having cancer while on a group plan- I'd sure rather have cancer with a Prudent Buyer network than a Pathway or Pathway X network. I even had a client of mine this week who is a cancer patient ask how they can get on the prudent buyer network. Her doctor brought up the name. When I told her she can't get it, she asked if she could buy a second health policy in addition to her first so that she could see both her cancer doctor and her surgeon. How many people pre 2014 broached the idea of paying for two separate PPO plans?

Well you are correct not everyone is blue color. However higher paid employees get sick as well . I'm sorry if you have $1 taken out of your check for a benefit it's not a benefit. The last time I looked up the word benefit in the dictionary it didn't say something you pay for. If you earn to much to qualify for subsided the employer can compensate tax free dollars in several other ways to the employees and they will be much better off having insurance they pick or choose and design vs one the employer pics out..

 

[Yagents]

Well you are correct not everyone is blue color. However higher paid employees get sick as well . I'm sorry if you have $1 taken out of your check for a benefit it's not a benefit. The last time I looked up the word benefit in the dictionary it didn't say something you pay for. If you earn to much to qualify for subsided the employer can compensate tax free dollars in several other ways to the employees and they will be much better off having insurance they pick or choose and design vs one the employer pics out..

Hamben, .......move on ..................you are just flat out wrong in so many ways, including your spelling abilities. Group networks are better, Cobra is not mandatory but a better network option to those cancer patients who need a robust network, there is no longer any legal way to give tax free dollars to employees, every employer has a different employee makeup, some families don't want medicaid for their kids, some employers don't want their employees to subject to the HC.gov fiasco. Take your cookie cutter, and go bake something else before you hurt someone.

 

[Quotebroker]

Well you are correct not everyone is blue color. However higher paid employees get sick as well . I'm sorry if you have $1 taken out of your check for a benefit it's not a benefit. The last time I looked up the word benefit in the dictionary it didn't say something you pay for.

Seriously?
ben·e·fit [ben-uh-fit]
noun

a payment or gift, as one made to help someone or given by a benefit society, insurance company, or public agency: The company offers its employees a pension plan, free health insurance, and other benefits.

If you earn to much to qualify for subsided the employer can compensate tax free dollars in several other ways to the employees

Please tell me the exact mechanics of employers getting their employees tax free dollars to pay for their individual health insurance premiums.

and they will be much better off having insurance they pick or choose and design vs one the employer pics out.

On the exchange, there are 5 plans. Most of my employers offer a comparable number, with networks that are far superior.