Health Insurance: Looking Back -- And Ahead
Bruce Winter, 45, Rising Costs Challenge Small-Business Owner
Each year, many of us make choices about our health insurance. See how life and their health plans affected some people this year and how that will reflect in 2008 selections. We'll check back with some of them in the coming year to see how their choices work out. Select an image to the left to read more. | |||||||||||
FSG Leasing, a small equipment financing firm in Laurel, has offered health coverage to its workers since 1991. But rising costs have made the benefit harder to justify. This year company president Bruce Winter of Silver Spring switched to a high-deductible (also called consumer-driven) plan with a health savings account, or HSA. Under the plan -- CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield HMO -- the company pays the entire premium, $1,657 a month, for its three workers who have opted for coverage. But the company saves $10,632 a year compared with last year's policy because it does not cover employees' claims until they meet deductibles of $1,200 per individual or $2,400 per family. It returns roughly $5,000 of those savings by funding each employee's tax-free savings account to the level of the deductible. As a participant in the plan, Winter finds himself trying to budget personal health costs to which he gave little thought before. "For the first time in my life, I'm a consumer when it comes to health-care services," said Winter, who admits he has a harder time convincing his workers of that. Among employers, those with fewer than 200 workers have had the toughest time keeping up with rising health insurance costs. Some 59 percent of small firms offer coverage this year, down from 68 percent in 2001, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report released last month. Only 45 percent of firms with fewer than 10 workers offer it. "The HSA, at this point, has provided us some breathing room," Winter said. But because rates can fluctuate widely, Winter is not making any guarantees about the future. "We'll see next year what happens with the quotes," he says. His grade: B+ | |||||||||||
