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In the past few years I have seen an alarming trend of max loaded small group health cases in Indiana. Under the laws a group plan has to be taken by a carrier (guaranteed issue) but the premium can be almost doubled.
We are seeing about 75% of small group health plans (under 50 lives) being max loaded.
At first I thought it was just one particular carrier and then I see this alarming rate with others. I also thought it might be that the group underwriters are all educated in the same manner and this is leading to state wide max loads. Then what really dawned on me is everyone is sick and the cost care keeps going up with medical inflation.
The state of Indiana along with the rest of the country does not take care of themselves and this leads to health care costs.
With the high percentage of max loaded cases it becomes harder and harder to move to a carrier to save money. The frustration of the small group employer is at a boiling point. The groups want to provide health benefits to their employees but it will get to the point where it cost to much.
Health Care Reform has done nothing to address these types of issues. The health care bill is universal health insurance at a cost. No where in the bill does it address cost of care. As we move forward to the health insurance exchanges small groups locally, will continue to drop their group benefits because of cost. The trade off is those small groups will lose their best talent to a company that will pay for health coverage. Even when the exchanges go into place an employer that is able to invest into the employee’s health plan will have a huge advantage with employee attraction and retention.
