Health benefit offers from small businesses keep vanishing

[jmyrlefuller]

http://wivb.com/2017/09/20/workers-at-small-companies-affected-most-by-health-insurance-premium-increases/

Associated Press
September 20, 2017

Only half of America’s smallest businesses now offer health coverage to their workers because many say steady cost hikes have made it too expensive to afford a benefit that nearly all large employers still provide.

The Kaiser Family Foundation said Tuesday that 50 percent of companies with three to 49 employees offered coverage this year. That’s down from 59 percent in 2012 and 66 percent more than a decade ago.

“There’s just not as much money around for compensation, including benefits,” said Gary Claxton, a Kaiser vice president and lead author of the nonprofit health policy organization’s annual health benefits study.

(excerpt)

[thackney]

I've always found the lesser benefits from small companies compensated by higher pay and more flexibility with hours.

[Taxcontrol]

I am of the opinion that health savings accounts with tax deductible contributions from both the employer and employee would go a long way to fix what is wrong with health care in America.

[roamer_1]

I am of the opinion that health savings accounts with tax deductible contributions from both the employer and employee would go a long way to fix what is wrong with health care in America.

No, it won't.
The problem is regulation and consortium control. Any time something is wildly overpriced, there are invariably things propping it up in the market. Look for those props and knock them out, and the market will adjust itself.

Insurance will never fix it. It will continue to cause the price to rise, because it is part of the problem.