Let's answer this question by asking another: Why does my company offer health insurance benefits in the first place?
-To compete for quality employees.
-To reduce costs:
-Reduced Absenteeism
-Reduced Turnover
-To build community goodwill
-To network with potential customers, suppliers, new business partners and even future employees
-To improve morale and productivity
Like with other business activities, it has to be a money maker. A company does not offer a health plan just to be nice. It makes cents, and dollars to have a health plan. Until now.
Therefore, if companies determine that the cost of Obamacare outweighs the benefits and if companies also determine that there are narrower holes in the safety net, that employees will have a place to land, they will drop drop this benefit. If companies like AT&T, Caterpillar and other American business giants drop their health plan due to the new expense, others will follow. Your company-offered benefits may quickly become a thing of the past.
How do we cope? One of the results is that some people, such as computer people, that have not traditionally been part of a union, may unionize to keep their benefits. The young and healthy may find that a private plan will be cheaper and have a broader benefit than their company plan. These will be the least affected. Many will not be so fortunate. Those that will likely suffer the most are those that are not insurable today.
Obamacare says that you can not be denied coverage, but some people will have to pay through the nose to get health insurance without their company plan. If you have a cancer survivor, or a diabetic or a schizophrenic in your household, you will be able to find a private plan, but you will have to pay a ton of money to get it. Insurance companies are not going to give this away, no matter what Aunt Nancy has said. They will be able to justify a higher price for taking on a higher risk. The courts will be on their side. Think SR-22 style insurance. (That is the auto insurance plan for people who have had a DUI on their record.) People like this will have little choice but to buy from a government co-op. Then you have to hope to find a doctor in your community that will accept your co-op.
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