Survey shows small businesses feel they will be paying more for their plans
The results of health insurance research performed by the Small Business Authority have been published into a report that has shown that the owners of companies are expecting their premiums to rise again this year.
The SB Authority Market Sentiment Survey was performed in July 2012.
The organization’s portfolio contains more than 100,000 business accounts. Its research included the participation of over 1,500 respondents, who gave their opinions and shared their concerns this month.
Forty nine percent of the participants feel their health insurance rates will rise.
They expect that this increase will occur within the next twelve months. Among the remaining 51 percent of the respondents, 13 percent felt that their premiums would fall, and 38 percent believed that there would be no change in the amount that they were paying for their health insurance plans.
Furthermore, 69 percent of the small business owners who took part in the survey do not intend to re-bid their health insurance. In fact, only 16 percent of those that participated in the research said that they had these intentions. Fifteen percent stated that they had not yet decided what they would do.
President, CEO, and chairman of the Small Business Authority, Barry Sloane, said that “Despite the fact that only 16 percent of business owners thought that they would need to re-bid their policy, which is greater than the typical sample, we believe it will be imperative for business owners to begin to plan immediately and understand all of the trends that are inherent in the new health insurance environment.”
Sloan added that it is evident to his organization and to the market that independent owners of small businesses need to buy health insurance for the coverage of themselves, their own families, as well as their employees and their families. He stated that there is now a new group of people with the potential of obtaining insurance for the first time, above and beyond those who have coverage and are continuing it onward into the future.
According to Sloane, this research makes it clear that the health insurance offerings in the marketplace are now evolving and will soon become quite different in terms of coverage, pricing, providers, and choice overall.
