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California Takes Another Stab at Destroying Small Business
Townhall.com ^ | March 25, 2012 | Mike Shedlock

Posted on 03/25/2012 7:08:10 AM PDT by Kaslin

Ludicrous Taxifornia Healthcare Proposal

California keeps up its insane attack on businesses of all kinds, this time with a proposal to force small businesses away from money-saving self-insurance plans into the arms of more costly Obama-care plans.

The LA Times writes, California seeks limits on small-business self-insurance trend

Sensing a fresh threat to state and federal healthcare reforms, California insurance officials are seeking new limits on a controversial form of health coverage insurers are selling to small employers.

At issue is a new type of self-insurance for small businesses with as few as 25 workers.

Critics said insurers such as Cigna Corp. are using these new plans to game the system and cherry-pick companies with healthier workers. They said this could undermine a key goal of the federal Affordable Care Act to lower premiums by pooling together more healthy and sick Americans into insurance exchanges. Premiums could continue to escalate without a diverse pool of consumers. That prospect has federal health officials weighing action against this practice as well.

Self-insurance, in which employers pay medical providers for their workers' care, has traditionally been used only by large employers that have the financial resources to pay for expensive medical claims. A Kaiser Family Foundation study found that 60% of U.S. workers with health coverage were in self-insured plans last year.

Now some insurers are chasing after much smaller customers with new plans designed to limit employer payouts for big claims using what's called stop-loss policies. This guarantees that businesses won't be responsible for anything over a certain amount per employee, perhaps as low as $10,000 or $20,000, with the rest paid by an insurer. Regulators and health-policy experts say this arrangement undercuts the notion of self-insurance since employers aren't bearing much of the risk, and it allows companies to circumvent some state insurance rules.

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones will unveil proposed legislation next week that would bar insurers from selling stop-loss policies below a certain amount. The specific dollar figure is still under consideration, but some experts recommend a minimum of $40,000 per worker.

Officials in the Obama administration are keeping a close eye on developments in California and other states where insurers are aggressively selling these plans.

"We are working carefully to ensure that consumers in all markets have the protections guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act and will provide more clarity on the tools available to reinforce these protections soon," a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said.

Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments over the constitutionality of the federal healthcare law and specifically its mandate that individuals purchase health insurance.
Yet Another Stab at Destroying Small Businesses

Not only does Obama want to tell you that you have to have insurance, the State of California (with Obama giving a careful eye) wants to mandate self-insured businesses be responsible for the first $40,000 per person, in healthcare liability.

If this passes, any sane business would move to another state if possible.

Indeed businesses are exiting California in drove already. Please see California Tax Revenues Plunge; Businesses Exit "Taxifornia" in Droves; Piecing Together the Jobs-Picture Puzzle for details.

Those businesses with 25-40 employees who need to stay within the state will start firing employees to get below the 25 employee minimum. The rest will simply be screwed (some into bankruptcy).

This Taxifornia proposal is yet another huge step in the wrong direction, and the idiots running the state cannot even figure out why businesses are leaving.

Enough is enough. It's time to start all over with health-care. Hopefully the Supreme Court tosses out Obama-care next week.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; US: California
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 03/25/2012 7:08:13 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
The Ruling Gangster Class (Public Employees and their unions) needs the swag for fat retirement on the beach after decades of make work jobs.

Hand over the cash, proles. We're the new feudal Lords.

2 posted on 03/25/2012 7:10:05 AM PDT by Regulator
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To: Kaslin

It’s becoming more and more obvious that government-run health care is just a deadlier variation of organized crime’s “protection” rackets.


3 posted on 03/25/2012 7:18:49 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the sociopath.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Well, at least the Californians have one advantage over the residents of unwilling member states of the former Soviet Union: at least they can leave CA. Nobody left the Soviet Union. This might seem light a minor advantage, but it could be a big one.


4 posted on 03/25/2012 7:33:45 AM PDT by coloradan (The US has become a banana republic, except without the bananas - or the republic.)
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To: Kaslin

Just curious...In a state like Idiotfornia, would it be legal for an individual to be the owner or 3 or 4 independent companies, each with 23 employees, and specializing in only certain aspect of a given business. Keeping BELOW a magic number is often the winning strategy.
If I had 4 companies with 23 employees, paid with checks from 4 accounts in 4 banks under 4 company names, with 4 street addresses, it would be workable and LESS DAMAGING TO THE BUSINESS.


5 posted on 03/25/2012 8:04:00 AM PDT by CaptainAmiigaf ( NY Times: We print the news as it fits our views.)
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To: CaptainAmiigaf

This type of organizational trick has been used in many areas and countries. For example, in Italy (well, this was true 20 years ago), a small business has no “employees” other than the officer(s) of the company. Everyone else is a “supplier” - of labor, knowledge, etc.


6 posted on 03/25/2012 8:54:55 AM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.")
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To: CaptainAmiigaf

And, of course, this type of arbitrary ploy is a great disincentive for a company who employs 23,45,90,235, whatever employees to hire more people - and, a great incentive for a company who has 26,53,110,258, and so on to become “more efficient”.


7 posted on 03/25/2012 8:57:30 AM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.")
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To: Regulator

you have that right! And I am almost at the verge of revolution as this is out and out theft...chasing good businesses right out of the state!


8 posted on 03/25/2012 9:01:26 AM PDT by fabian (" And a new day will dawn for those who stand long, and the forests will echo with laughter")
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To: Kaslin
I watched Atlas Shrugged again last night and it is even scarier and more relevant today than it was a year ago. So many comments just leaped off the screen at me. Reading this reminded me of the government directive in the movie that businesses can't move to another state.....
9 posted on 03/25/2012 9:10:22 AM PDT by WhyisaTexasgirlinPA (ABO)
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To: CaptainAmiigaf

Wouldn’t it be less trouble to just move out of California?


10 posted on 03/25/2012 9:42:00 AM PDT by Mountain Troll (My investment plan - Canned food and shotguns)
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To: Kaslin
Sorry, no sympathy.

Why in God's name would any business, small or otherwise, still be in California at this point? Why would they seemingly compete to see who can be "the last white farmer in Zimbabwe"? Can they not see the writing on the wall..?

End Near for Zimbabwe's Last White Farmers

11 posted on 03/25/2012 9:47:25 AM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Kaslin

Lots of opportunities for business over herein N Nevada.

NO state income tax for persons or corps, either.

Property prices cheaper & property taxes lower.

4 seasons, lots of recreation.

Quit where you are and quit being a serf to the crazies in Sacramento.


12 posted on 03/25/2012 10:42:59 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: CaptainAmiigaf

Once they get ANY law into place with a ‘magic’ number of employees, income, or whatever, they only have to change that magic number.

25 employees becomes 5 instead of 25!!

$500,000 of income threshold becomes $250,000—or $125,000 or whatever level they wish to change things to.

Remember when Clinton went after the particles of arsenic that could be in water?
He drastically changed the number & put thousands of private wells into jeopardy. He just struck the zeros off the previous number.
In many places in the country, arsenic is a natural ingredient in water—no matter if it is a private well or a community well.


13 posted on 03/25/2012 10:47:16 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: ridesthemiles

Clinton also dramatically changed the ‘standards’ of height vs weight to push more people into “Obese” category & give them more ‘rights’ under the ADA.

I went from ‘slightly overweight’ to ‘borderline obese’ overnight & I didn’t lose or gain a pound!!!!


14 posted on 03/25/2012 10:49:49 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: ridesthemiles
Quit where you are and quit being a serf to the crazies in Sacramento.

And be a serf to the Democrats in Las Vegas instead?

15 posted on 03/25/2012 11:22:16 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (There is no such thing as "renewable" energy.)
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To: Mountain Troll

Not if ALL your customers and business takes place in Stupidfornia. A business that deals across the nation can well move to “greener pastures”, but when your livelihood is local, you either “think it out” or suffer the “slings and arrows of outrageous legislation”.


16 posted on 03/25/2012 1:33:09 PM PDT by CaptainAmiigaf ( NY Times: We print the news as it fits our views.)
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