The Day After An Historic Day

Wednesday November 5th. My first appointment; an employer/client with a staff of 16 (average age, 35). I'm delivering their health insurance renewal. It's a 4.4% increase without any changes to deductible or co-pays. (I wish they were all this good!) After the increase, the annualized billed premium per covered employee will be $4,960.

This afternoon we are delivering another renewal to a client with 156 employees (average age, 41). They are getting an 11.7% increase but after switching to a new provider network - with the same insurer and a 99% overlay (match) - we end up with a 5.2% increase. With no other plan design changes, after the renewal, the annualized billed premium per covered employee will be $7,027. Note: I did not cherry pick these two groups because they have exceptionally low costs. They just happen to be on my calendar today and in fact, across the board, our clients pay on average an annualized premium of $5589 per employee. Premium sharing between employer and employees further reduce our client's cost by about 25%.

I share such detail because yesterday's election results included advisory referendums from 22 cities and counties across the state on the question: "Shall the state legislature enact health care reform legislation by December 31, 2009, that guarantees every Wisconsin resident affordable coverage as good as what is provided to state legislators?" By about a 74% margin - it wasn't even close - all 22 voted 'Yes'.

Have the voters spoken? Figures available on line show that 81,440 employees covered under the Wisconsin Employee Trust Fund cost taxpayers $950,775,000. Despite the size of the pool and the state's obvious 'buying power', that works out to $11,675 for each employee; about double - but sometimes triple - what our small business clients are paying. Would the results of the referendums have been the same if the wording defined "affordable"? [Everyone wants their children to have a good education but referendums asking for millions to build new schools more often than not are rejected.]

As soon as January, the new majorities in the State Assembly and Senate will be eager to respond to the voice of their constituents. We've asked for change so by golly, change we're going to get! "Affordable health care as good as what is provided to state legislators" will be at the top of their list. Every client I work with has a different take on what health coverage is "good" and what premiums are "affordable". The great thing about my work as a broker/consultant is the choices I bring to each situation. Those who will be crafting reform legislation would do well to model their ideas on the results achieved by small businesses and not state employees. To do otherwise would bankrupt an already cash strapped state.

Digging Out From A Dung Heap of Empty Rhetoric

I don't know squat about the economy. Or foreign policy. Or so many of the issues that have been "debated" ad nauseum in countless national and local campaigns. I DO know quite a bit about the delivery and financing of health care. In some cases, candidates have had two full years to vet this issue but instead, all we have had is sound byte "solutions" that expose real naivete or indifference or worse!

Today, finally, it comes to an end. In the business community where I serve, there is a palpable tension over economic uncertainties of historic proportions. It feels to me like a simmering pot of resentment; one that may certainly have a bearing on today's election returns but will more probably boil over if the winners are not the real leaders we so badly need.

We should pray for a little divine guidance!