California small-business owners are getting hit with double-digit increases on health insurance rates, as state regulators deal with a loophole in the Affordable Care Act.
Small-business owners in California are caught in the middle of a battle between the state’s insurance commissioner and leading companies insurance such as Anthem Blue and Aetna. The companies announced significant small-business premium increases, up to 17.4 percent, for 2013.
Insurance commissioner Dave Jones believes these increases are excessive and unreasonable, disagreeing with the methodology used by insurance companies to project future medical costs. According to Jones, the insurance companies are overstating what it will cost to service their patients and are inappropriately charging fees now that aren’t required until 2014 under the Affordable Care Act.
Despite this disagreement, small-business owners have little consolation. Jones has absolutely no authority to do anything about the premium increases and benefit reductions, blaming this lack of power to a “loophole” in the healthcare reform legislation. This is likely the first of many battles around the country, as carriers report significant premium increases to individual and small-business policies.
About Mike Periu
Mike is a seasoned executive with experience in small business finance and management. He is the founder of Proximo, LLC a leading provider of corporate, consumer and small business education and training services with an emphasis on finance and technology.
Mike Periu is also a leading national voice for individual empowerment through financial education and entrepreneurship. He has been interviewed over 500 times in national and international media, including NBC, Univision, CNN en español, Telemundo, HITN, TVE, RTE, SBS, MegaTV and others.
Mike writes regularly for American Express OpenForum, Yahoo! Finanzas and is a Huffington Post contributor.
Mike has degrees in Finance and International Business from Georgetown University. He is on the Board of Directors of the Council for Economic Education and was a Fellow at the Kauffman Foundation’s Labs for Enterprise Creation.
