one of a series about how a souring economy and rising prices are pinching consumers, businesses and workers.
At a time when groceries and gasoline are getting more and more expensive, workers for a local community services agency learned this week about another challenge: a big increase in their health insurance costs.
Stories of smaller companies struggling with the high cost of health insurance are all too familiar, said Rosanne Placey, a spokeswoman for the state Insurance Department. Those businesses have relatively few people in their insurance pools, and expensive medical claims by even a few enrollees can lead to dramatic spikes in the cost of coverage.
Rev. Regis Ryan, the group’s executive director, worried that some workers would simply drop their health insurance. As of yesterday, about eight corporation employees planned to do so, Mr. Hahn said.
Officials said they had no choice but to pass on rate increases from Highmark that, so far, have been the best deal they could find.
The rising cost of health care is part of the problem, but regulatory reforms also are needed to make health insurance more affordable for small businesses, Highmark spokesman Michael Weinstein said.
In April, the Pennsylvania House approved legislation aimed at curbing the cost of insurance available to individuals and small businesses. Among other provisions, the measure would limit the ability of insurers to consider health history in setting rates and would require insurers to spend 85 percent of premiums on health care. Individuals seeking to enroll in a plan could not be refused coverage.
Earlier this week, they introduced legislation to help small businesses and the self-employed lower health insurance costs by banding together in statewide or national insurance pools. The proposal also would ban insurance rating based on health status and give tax credits to small businesses that pay at least 60 percent of their employees’ health care premiums.
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