by Ayla Yersel and Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine About a third of Vermont small businesses have dropped their health insurance since the inception of Vermont Health Connect, according to a new survey, while very few companies have signed on. But it is very likely that nearly all those individuals employed in small businesses in Vermont have migrated to the state health insurance Exchange.
Vermont Business Magazine and the Ethan Allen Institute conducted a statewide survey over the last several months asking whether small businesses offering health insurance to their employees in 2013 continued to do so in 2014. These businesses reported 50 or fewer employees and therefore were required to offer health insurance under Vermont Health Connect.
This bar graph indicates the number of businesses offering health insurance (blue) versus those that are not (red) in 2013 and 2014. All data, charts and graphs by Vermont Business Magazine.
The Vermont Business Magazine/Ethan Allen Institute Vermont Health Connect Exchange Survey was sent to 3,100 small businesses in Vermont. Nearly 500 employers responded.
For those companies who responded, some are not participating in the Vermont Exchange because of cost and the complicated nature of the application process, which was exacerbated by the state’s Web site being unable to process small business applicants. Businesses who want to sign up for the Exchange now are required to go directly through Blue Cross and MVP.
Of 456 total businesses that had made a decision about their health insurance coverage, 45.2 percent reported they will participate in the Vermont Health Care Exchange. But only about 2 percent of all respondents reported that their businesses had not offered insurance in 2013, but planned to enroll in the Exchange in 2014, and 36.5 percent of companies that offered health insurance coverage in 2013, dropped it in 2014.
"It’s clear from the survey numbers that there is still quite a bit of uncertainty surrounding the state’s health care policies,” said Robert Roper, President of the Ethan Allen Institute. “Where there is movement in the business community, it is overwhelmingly to stop offering insurance as a benefit and to send their employees into the currently dysfunctional Vermont Health Connect Exchange, where these employees can claim Obamacare credits.”
“The Shumlin Administration,” Roper said, “hopes to convert those credits to federal funding for Green Mountain Care (single payer) in 2017. Therefore, this divorcing of health insurance from employment is what the incentives in Act 48 were designed to bring about. Businesses who are concerned about their employees will have to consider whether unloading them into the Exchange will be good for them, especially if the whole shaky scheme breaks down, leaving the employees with no insurance, no credits, and no Green Mountain Care."
Survey Results
|
Company Choice |
# Respondents |
|
YES/YES: Coverage Continued |
197 |
|
YES/NO: Coverage Dropped |
113 |
|
NO/NO: No insurance in 2013 or 2014 |
137 |
|
NO/YES: Added Insurance |
9 |
|
TOTAL |
456 |
(NO business DID NOT offer insurance in 2013/YES business will participate in exchange in 2014) – 9
According to the VBM/Ethan Allen survey, a majority of businesses entering the Exchange in 2014 reported that they will offer the same premium coverage under the new health care plan. Of those companies who will continue to provide insurance, 77 reported that their employees would receive the same benefits in 2014 as in 2013, 11 reported they will offer greater coverage, and nine reported they will offer less coverage than in 2014.
Barbara Herrington of Greensea Systems, Inc said that her small business is unable to offer anything similar to the opportunities provided by the Exchange.
“They can pay extra for better plans or enroll in cheaper plans, add dependents, etc,” she said. “As a small company, we can’t offer anything similar via private insurance.”
“We believe the exchange provides the best opportunity for choice – we are giving employees the money and the opportunity to pick whatever plan they want,” she said.
Jim Grout of High 5 Adventure Learning Center said that the Affordable Care Act will allow his business to increase its contribution to 85-95 percent for the same cost of its old contribution.
“Our employees can use their savings to purchase a higher level plan with better coverage,” he said. “We save, they save, and get better coverage.”
Of all respondents, 54.8 percent reported that their businesses will not enter the Exchange in 2014.
SEE ALL EMPLOYER COMMENTS BELOW
Of the 310 that offered their employees health insurance in 2013, 113 (36.5 percent) dropped health insurance coverage and therefore will not participate in the Exchange in 2014.
This pie chart shows the ratio of businesses in Vermont offering health insurance in 2014 (purple and blue) to those that are not (green and red). The ratio of those offering insurance in 2013 is the sum of red and blue versus those who did not (green and purple).
Several factors played into a business’ reluctance to sign onto the Exchange. Some respondents claimed the system was “disorganized,” and others said that the plans provided under the Exchange offered less coverage for higher premiums.
Chris Abrams, owner of Real Good Tags, Inc said that it was in his company’s best interest not to enter VHC and thus require his employees to register as individuals.
“Only two of our employees plus myself opted for the insurance our company provided in 2013,” he said. “Both employees qualified for rate reductions under the VT Health Connect.”
Richard F Hamlin, PE, of Donald L Hamlin Consulting Engineers, said that due to their experiences with the Exchange, his firm decided not to provide health care for its employees for the first time since its founding.
“Our firm has provided health care for its employees since its inception in 1965,” he said. “This year, based on our experience with the Exchange process, was the first year we considered ending that practice.”
He said that his staff wasted a significant amount of time trying to use the Exchange, only to be told to deal directly with their carrier.
Douglas A Priestley, president and treasurer of Lovejoy Tool Co, Inc, said that his company chose to enroll in the Exchange, even though it will pay more in 2014 for less coverage.
“If we were to offer coverage in 2014 that is comparable to what we presently (2013) offer employees, it would increase our costs by 41 percent,” he said.
Priestley said that the attempt to enroll has caused “both confusion and frustration.”
“Many of our employees feel the state is favoring unemployed individuals by not offering more subsidies to the working,” he said. “Deductibles and out of pockets on most plans are too high. Some of the plans that don’t allow HSAs have higher deductibles than the ones that do.”
The comparison between 2013 and 2014 is not completely “apples to apples” in a couple of significant ways.
First, sole proprietors are no longer considered businesses, but rather individuals for the purposes of VHC.
“A lot of those who dropped it are sole proprietors, which I think skews those (VBM/Ethan Allen Survey) numbers,” said Betsy Bishop, president of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. But no entity, private or public, knows exactly how many SPs are involved.
The Vermont Chamber was the largest provider of VACE group coverage with 17,000 members insured through Blue Cross. The Affordable Care Act ended programs, such as the Chambers’ VACE plan, in which mostly small companies, including SPs, could get group rates through the Chamber.
In Vermont they were all supposed to go into the Vermont Health Connect Exchange. Because of the well-documented technical problems, most then had to sign up directly through an insurance carrier, but those members were not segregated by type, SP versus small business.
For Blue Cross, it had about 41,500 members at the end of 2013 in the small group plan (or before VHC kicked in) and about 35,000 in April 2014, said Kevin Goddard, vice president of external affairs at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont. The corresponding numbers for members in the individual plan is the reverse of that, he said, with 19,500 before and 24,000 after, which likely reflects the churning of businesses either dropping coverage or changing status from SP to individual.
Goddard said there are several thousand individuals “in the pipeline” from VHC, who still need processing.
“We’ve retained close to all the members we had before,” Goddard said. He said once all is said and done, Blue Cross membership in the small group could exceed previous numbers.
“It’s too early for us to have hard data on who is doing exactly what,” Goddard said.
M Beatrice Grause is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems. When Vermont Health Connect was first introduced, the hospitals feared that small businesses would drop coverage and employees would not pick it up, leaving a large pool of uninsured. They urged employers to retain health insurance coverage. Now that it appears there is no such pool and that there could be even more workers covered by the end of 2014 than in 2013, the hospitals, which Grause represents, seem more comfortable.
"It doesn't matter how or where Vermonters purchase health insurance," Grause said. "What's important is working toward our shared goal of universal coverage."
What also makes analysis so difficult is that a number of businesses have not yet had to make a choice of whether to offer health insurance or not, but neither the state nor the insurers know exactly how many.
For instance, businesses whose insurance annual date was not January 1, could defer making a decision until that date arrived. As an example, Vermont Business Magazine will remain on its 2013 plan until December 1, 2014. At that point VBM will have to decide whether to offer insurance or send its employees to the Exchange as individuals.
Mark Larson, Department of Vermont Health Access Commissioner, said the various program changes, such as the change in status of sole proprietors; the varying annual dates for businesses; and the natural “churn” among policyholders (employment and marital status changes, etc) “makes it very hard to track the migration of people from 2013 to 2014.”
Like Goddard, however, he sees the potential of more people being covered in 2014 than in 2013.
The Vermont Department of Financial Regulation, which regulates health insurance, will not release its survey of VHC participation until January 2015.
In an email, Larson expanded on small business participation in VHC, saying that it is difficult to compare 2013 and 2014 for a few reasons.
“Most associations stopped providing group insurance coverage (eg, VACE), which meant that those employers of small businesses began to offer Vermont Health Connect plans directly or decided to stop offering coverage,” he said.
“In any year, employees move from small to large employer, leave the state, or start taking advantage of a spouse’s health insurance plan,” he said.
“In 2014, employees had the additional option of choosing a Vermont Health Connect plan with financial help, if their employer-sponsored insurance was considered unaffordable,” he said.
“Employees are not tracked individually, so these shifts are difficult to quantify,” he said.
“In comparing data from January to May in previous years, one can see the small group market has decreased some, and the individual market has grown,” he said. “The market covering public programs, individual plans and small group plans has grown overall.”
“We expected to see some of these shifts based on the information above,” he said.
“Our goal is to ensure that Vermonters are covered by comprehensive health plans,” he said. “We will continue to work to ensure that Vermonters have the tools and support they need to access health insurance.”
For those businesses offering insurance in 2014, this pie chart indicates whether the level of coverage has remained the same (green), increased (blue) or decreased (red) from what they offered in 2013.
He said that the Department of Vermont Health Access appreciates the insurance carriers’ dedication to providing small group clients with the plans that they want.
“There are tax benefits associated with non-employer plans in the form of advanced premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions that make health insurance more affordable,” he said. “This financial help is available to thousands of Vermonters based on their income.”
Back on the phone, Larson said, “We’ve taken our lumps, but I hope people see we’re making progress every day.”
There is currently no minimum employer contribution requirement in Vermont. To receive a federal small business tax credit, however, employers “must offer at least a 50 percent contribution to employee premiums,” according to the Vermont Health Connect Web site.
The federal government will begin penalizing US citizens who do not have health insurance on their 2014 tax return, according to the VHC website
Depending on which is greater, the IRS will begin charging 1 percent of a household’s income, or $95 per adult and $47 per child. The cap for lower income families will be $285. For individuals, the penalty will cap off at roughly $4,500 to $5,000, according to the Web site.
Betsy Bishop and others advocate that the state’s first order of business is to fix the technical problems with the VHC Web site. Kevin Goddard wants to make sure that all individuals are able to sign up, now that businesses are able to go straight to the carriers.
Larson said the business part of the Exchange Web site should be available sometime this summer, so businesses will have the option of signing up there, through a broker or directly through Blue Cross or MVP to make it as “convenient as possible.”
Bishop said the Chamber has supported and continues to support health care reform, but is concerned that Vermont businesses will continue to need to change course as the state heads toward single payer.
Her view is that most businesses have taken the path of least resistance and just found an Exchange plan that most closely resembles the plan they had previously.
Some employers who dropped coverage clearly did so for the benefit of their employees, many of whom could take advantage of the federal tax credit. Larson also noted the benefit of the tax credit.
Bishop’s point is that Vermont is very close to universal health care now, with about 96 percent coverage, between the Exchange, large group coverage, individual coverage (including those on the former Catamount plan), Medicaid and Medicare.
She said businesses will face another change in 2016 when the 50-100 employee group must get onto VHC and then another one in 2017, when the “all in” single payer plan is supposed to be enacted.
She agrees with the need and has supported health care reform. She and the Chamber are “laser focused” now on cost containment and how the new system will be financed.
Right now, businesses and their employees fund the system through premiums. In 2017 that will transition to some sort of tax system, which must raise about $2 billion. Perhaps, she said, the new system will be enacted incrementally.
“I think businesses need to prepare themselves for the next three years of a changing landscape in health care benefits,” Bishop said.
VBM/Ethan Allen Data
As the results show, 63.5 percent of those who offered insurance in 2013 will continue to do so in 2014, while nearly all of those companies who did not in 2013, will not in 2014 (93.8 percent).
All told, 45.2 percent of all businesses in the VBM/Ethan Allen survey will participate in Vermont Health Connect his year, nearly identical to the percentage of all Vermont companies which offered insurance in 2013 (47 percent, according to VHC).
The original VHC plan was that businesses, like individuals, would have to sign up for health insurance through the VHC Web site starting October 1, 2013.
Because of significant technical problems with the Web site, Governor Shumlin made the determination in late 2013 that businesses who chose to offer insurance in 2014 would be allowed to go directly through the insurer, either Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont or MVP Health Care, the only two insurers offering plans to the small group market (50 or fewer employees) in Vermont.
Because the state wanted to focus on making sure individuals were able to sign up through the VHC Web site, the governor decided to allow businesses to go through BCBS or MVP directly again in 2015.
The assessment for a business which chooses not to offer insurance remains at $40 per employee per month until 2016.
Background from the Vermont Health Connect Website
For the 47 percent of Vermont small businesses that offer insurance, the keep-drop question is a critical one.
A village market, say, staffed by lower and middle-income employees (up to 400 percent of federal poverty level, or household income of $94,200 for a family of four) might consider dropping coverage in order to allow the employees to take advantage of federal tax credits. A law firm with high-income partners, on the other hand, might decide to continue their employer-sponsored insurance.
Employees in most Vermont households that use Vermont Health Connect (those with incomes up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level or $94,200 for a family of four) will be eligible for premium tax credits and/or cost-sharing subsidies to help pay for out-of-pocket costs. These two forms of financial assistance are not available to Vermonters in employer-sponsored plans.
Additional Comments from Surveyed Businesses
YES/YES
Business: Colton Enterprises, Inc.
Name of Respondent: Christi Bollman
Comments: “We have significant concerns about the fact that no long-term funding mechanism was in place for the health care exchange prior to implementing the forced insurance exchange. A future undetermined payroll tax added onto us as an employer has created a business environment with too many unknown factors therefore making it impossible to determine the viability of staying in business.
We attempted to get insurance through the exchange this year with no success. Fortunately were able to extend current coverage directly with BCBS to avoid penalizing our valuable seasonal employees.
Our business depends on seasonal employees. The rules regarding seasonal employees are vague and are interpreted differently depending who you ask (accountant, navigator, BCBS or exchange staff).
We have five seasonal employees and if they were forced to get insurance through us it would significantly impact their quality of health care coverage and availability of premium assistance. They would end up with three different health insurance policies throughout any given calendar year with a reset deductible with each new policy.
So do we take away the insurance benefit from our FT to help our seasonal employees or hurt our seasonal people and continue to offer insurance to our FT? Neither option works well.”
Business: Farm-Way
Name of Respondent: Carol Metayer
Comments: “Did not appreciate the change from full time 40 hours to 30 hours, feel it will cost workers hours in the end.”
Business: Shepard Communications Group, LLC
Name of Respondent: Steven Shepard
Comments: “Some of my answers are difficult because I am a small business of two people-- myself and my wife. The business covers our healthcare costs.”
Business: High 5 Adventure Learning Center
Name of Respondent: Jim Grout
Comments: “The ACA will allow us to increase our contribution towards the premium 85-95% for the same cost of our old contribution. Our employees can use their savings to purchase a higher level plan with better coverage. We save, they save, and get better coverage.”
Business: Business Culture Consultants
Name of Respondent: Flip Brown
Comments: “Although the implementation has been rocky, I fully support the goals of getting everyone into the health care system and moving towards a single-payer structure.”
Business: Siliski Buzzell P.L.
Name of Respondent: Robert Buzzell Jr.
Comments: “I am quite disappointed with the implementation of the health plan. We were ready to have our employees go through the health connect portal. The change in the availability for each employee to pick their own plan and carrier was to say the least disappointing. We are at the mercy of the health insurance companies as well as [cut off]
Business: Greensea Systems, Inc.
Name of Respondent: Barbara Herrington
Comments: “We believe the exchange provides the best opportunity for choice- we are giving employees the money and the opportunity to pick whatever plan they want. They can pay extra for better plans or enroll in cheaper plans, add dependents, etc. As a small company, we can’t offer anything similar via private insurance.”
Business: Key Communications
Name of Respondent: Kathy Fretz
Comments: “Unfortunately, we were not given correct information, and that’s why we felt it suited our employees’ needs better. Afterward, we learned our employees could not pick what they wanted, so it was all for naught anyway.”
Business: Repro
Name of Respondent: Chuck Siegel
Comments: If the state goes to a “single payer” plan, it will be a financial disaster for many small businesses such as mine and many businesses will leave VT or reduce work hours to get under the minimum requirement.”
“Healthcare should be left to the private sector as proven by the problems with the VT HCE.”
Business: RingMaster Software Corporation
Name of Respondent: Michael Rooney
Comments: “You should give extra credit to BCBS VT. Don George decided that BCBS VT would cover VT companies when the Exchange suddenly said they could not bill employers even after the employers had successfully struggled to get the company and employees entered into the Exchange.”
Business: Lovejoy Tool Co., Inc.
Name of Respondent: Douglas A. Priestley, President/Treasurer
Comments: “We will pay more in 2014 than presently. However, if we were to offer coverage in 2014 that is comparable to what we presently offer employees, it would increase our costs by 41 percent. Policies offered on VHC are not affordable coverages. We will all pay more for less coverage. Many of our employees feel the state is favoring unemployed individuals by not offering more subsidies to the working. Deductibles and out of pockets on most plans are too high. Some of the plans that don’t allow HSAs have higher deductibles than the ones that do. The attempt to enroll has caused both confusion and frustration.
Business: Aldrich + Elliot, PC
Name of Respondent: Jill Marsano
Comments: “I feel that the premiums and OOP costs on the exchange are astronomical and not comparable to the private insurance market.”
Business: All Earth Renewables
Name of Respondent: Joyce Dicianna
Comments: “I wish we were a Single Payer state.”
Business: Phoenix Wire Inc.
Name of Respondent: Sherry Corbin
Comments: “60 percent of my coverage is Medicare supplemental. The Exchange is less expensive than our old plan.”
Business: Biebel Builders Inc.
Name of Respondent: Kathie K. Biebel
Comments: “Insurance in general is killing businesses!”
Business: Engineering Ventures
Name of Respondent: Bob Neeld
Comments: “Health care changes are not significantly different cost but implementation is confusing.”
Business: Senix Corporation
Name of Respondent: Doug Boehm
Comments: “We don’t understand the exchange yet, but believe single payer is the best way to go.”
Business: Wright Construction co.
Name of Respondent: Christine Boudreau
Comments: “We do not like the exchange (single payer) system!”
Business: Richard Electric Inc.
Name of Respondent: Steven L. Richard
Comments: “Obamacare is a bad idea!”
Business: Stark Mnt. Woodworking
Name of Respondent: Louis DuPont
Comments: “Bring on single payer!”
Anonymous
Comments: “It’s been a mess, and will make no difference to us in the end.”
Comments: “My employees are paying more and getting less.”
Comments: “Disappointed with health insurance exchange. Premiums increased and choices decreased. Company will pay more for less coverage.”
Comments: “We are now paying more with less coverage than before. I believe this cost will only skyrocket once the state figures true cost.”
Comments: “The exchange was very time-consuming to all in 2013, with no results and employers had to scramble to get insurance on December 2 thanks only to BCBS, not Vermont Health Connect and there [sic] poor planning.”
YES/NO
Name of Respondent: Betsy Luce
Comments: “Staff liked our old HSA, but deductibles too high on VT Health Care Connect.”
Business: Real Good Tags, Inc
Name of Respondent: Chris Abrams
Comments: “Only two of our employees plus myself (owner) opted for the insurance our company provided in 2013. Both employees qualified for rate reductions under the VT health Connect-- it was in our company’s best interest not to enter the Health Exchange.”
Business: Craig Hervey Housewright Construction, Inc.
Name of Respondent: Jodi Graves
Comments: “The Vermont Health Exchange was a colossal failure for small business for 2014. They should not have misled businesses to believe they would be ready for the implementation beginning in Nov. 2013 for 2014. Huge waste of time, money and energy.”
Business: GW Tatro Construction, Inc.
Name of Respondent: Dawn Tatro
Comments: “I have never seen a more disorganized system! I have had employees go in four times and get four different quotes! What a waste of everyone’s time.”
Name of Respondent: Stephen Smith
Comments: “The Health Exchange will increase our costs for lower benefits.”
Anonymous
Comments: “I feel bad that the exchange requirement (and single payer in 2017) caused my employees to lose coverage and settle for less coverage. the single payer option in 2017 will cause me to rethink remaining as a VT business, especially if there is an 11-15 percent payroll tax on top of all the other taxes.”
Comments: “We are a small business and if the law passes that we have to offer employees coverage or pay $1190, that could put a small business under quickly-- healthcare should have been left alone by Gov. Dean years ago so we had some competition left in this state. Health insurance was supposed to be cheaper through Health Connect, but it looks like it’s just going to be more expensive if you do not qualify for federal subsidy as now some businesses can’t go through their [illegible] to get health insurance cheaper unless they are a business with over 25 employees.
There is always a catch. Vermont is getting too expensive to live here with tax increases constantly. This last year our business paid more in employee taxes due to tax increases and the kicker is we had less employees. What’s wrong with that picture?”
Comments: “The government has no business in healthcare, and their fumbling has only demonstrated their incompetence.”
Comments: “We were very disappointed with the plan selection through the Exchange. There were no plans that offered the same value as our current plans. More expensive for less coverage.”
Comments: “The expected 10-15 percent payroll tax will cost me more than I paid all last year for all premiums and deductibles, with much less exposure.”
Comments: “We are offering 100 percent paid for dental insurance instead as many of our employees will do better on the exchange as individuals with tax credits or subsidies.”
Comments: “Vermont Legislature should meet once every three years. This will depend on how much next year’s anticipated payroll tax will be. Vermont legislature is already messing with private industry’s bottom line with paid sick leave.”
Comments: “The Exchange was a fiasco. We spent hours on something that was known not to work. Montpelier waited far too long, thus wasting valuable time for employers and insurers! They continue to look at the Exchange through rose-tinted lenses.”
NO/NO
Business: Healing Earth Vermont Herbals
Name of Respondent: Cathleen Branon-Keogh
Comments: “Our business will be hiring employees this year-- this is definitely a concern. We are hoping to hire to avoid it.”
Business: Vermont Country Soap
Name of Respondent: Hilde Whalley
Comments: “We do not believe that businesses should be involved in providing insurance, nor do we believe that the government should be enforcing a tax which encroaches private corporations, which VT Health Connect does.”
Business: Northeast Kingdom Balsam
Name of Respondent: Peggy Day Gibson
Comments: “We are getting less coverage for more money, doesn’t seem right.”
Business: Vermont Training Solutions
Name of Respondent: Tim Cook
Comments: “We would prefer a single payer option where businesses are not expected to support healthcare.”
Business: GM Bowen Excavating Contractor, Inc.
Name of Respondent:
Comments: “Our firm hires employees from May to November, so for six months they do not work for us. Having their own insurance coverages allows them to work for other companies for one-half the year.”
Business: Sealand Power Industries, Inc.
Name of Respondent: Alan Wachstein
Comments: “Obama/Green Mtn Care will not work, is not sustainable. You want working people to lose what they had, buy into your ridiculous limited choices, pay more out of pocket for less coverage just so we can support those who contribute nothing-- No way, Jose.”
Business: Vermont Signature Sauces
Name of Respondent: KarenWhitman
Comments: “We are two employee/owners and our insurance comes from another source. One of the reasons we do not intend to grow within the state is that costs for insurance and rules for doing business in Vermont make it very difficult to succeed for a small business within this State. I have lived here most of my life and am sorry to see social values take precedence over a well-balanced economy.”
Business: VMS Construction
Name of Respondent: Victor Shappy
Comments: “While we don’t provide Health Insurance, we do provide a “health benefit” to those employees who are eligible.”
Anonymous
Comments: “About ready to go on welfare.”
Comments: “Too expensive and would bankrupt the business-- we are a small business and would have to get rid of employees if we had to pay wages and insurance. Everyone’s idea of affordable is different.”
Comments: “Still not affordable, employees are better off signing up as individuals. Need low-cost indemnity-only plan.”
Comments: “The company principals are covered privately through VHC, they do not provide insurance to the additional employee as the employee receives benefits through their spouse. the company does reimburse the employee for a portion of the individual cost of their coverage on their spouse’s program.”
NO/YES
Business: Pam Knights Communications
Name of Respondent: Pam Knights
Comments: “Am not happy with the new increased rates for sole proprietorships.”
TRIED TO
Business: High Mowing Organic Seeds
Name of Respondent: J. Maxine Kelly
Comments: “We were told by the Health Exchange that we could not go through the Exchange at this time. We decided to go directly to BCBS of Vermont. There was too much confusion and lack of resources through the [illegible].”
Business: Sterling Gun Drills Inc.
Name of Respondent: Doug Holley
Comments: “VHC total fiasco-- I wasted months of preparation, enrollment only to return to BC/BS direct!”
Business: Integrated Solar Applications
Name of Respondent: Katrina Wilson
Comments: “Our current plans offered to us through VACE/the Brattleboro Chamber of Commerce are not great! We were excited about the Health Exchange. Now we are just frustrated!”
Business: McCormick, Fitzpatrick, Kasper & Burchard
Name of Respondent: Keith Kasper
Comments: “Exchange was very time consuming and exasperating, and then we could not sign up for it until 2015 after all that work and headache!”
Business: Donald L. Hamlin Consulting Engineers, Inc.
Name of Respondent: Richard F. Hamlin, P.E.
Comments: “Our firm has provided healthcare for its employees since its inception in 1965. This year, based on our experience with the Exchange process, was the first year we considered ending that practice. Our staff wasted a significant amount of hours trying to use the Exchange, only to be told to deal directly with our provider, something we have been able to do for many years without the Exchange.”
Anonymous
Comments: “We complied with all required deadlines and it is our understanding that we were one of the first groups that successfully enrolled in the Health Connect with the help of our agent. Right when deduction changes (from employees) took effect we received notice that they were delaying enrollment into the Health Connect until April 2014 due to the issues with billing. Shortly after that, we received notice that we would have to continue with our current group insurance because the Health Connect would not be ready for Small Group Enrollment in 2014. So, our strategy regarding health insurance coverage in 2014 is to get the deductions situated, get the bills from our current group insurance cleared up of all of the credits and adjustments due to cancellation and reinstatement (when we enrolled through Health Connect) and give our employees the most stable, consistent and beneficial insurance we can after all of the chaos.”
Comments: “This whole process has been a huge waste of time, especially to have to bail out at the end and not use the state’s site. The implementation of the system is a complete joke, and I’m not looking forward to the same process at the end of 2014 because I don’t think our state is competent enough to figure it out by then.”
UNSURE
Name of Respondent: R.A. Bertolino
Comments: “Now in order to afford health care, which we do not have, we will have to lower our [illegible] from full time to part time. Prayers to all for the great job for putting this burden on the middle and lower class citizens.”
Ayla Yersel is a freelance reporter and Tim McQuiston is editor of Vermont Business Magazine. This story originally ran in the May 2014 issue of Vermont Business Magazine. Companies were surveyed from November 2013 through March 2014. A few additional surveys were received after the print deadline. All the employer comments associated with the survey are included in this Web version of the story on www.vermontbiz.com.
TOP PHOTO: Navigator Peter Sterling; Mark Larson, Department of Vermont Health Access Commissioner; and Lawrence Miller, Chief of Health Care Reform, during a press conference at the launch of Vermont Health Connect, October 1, 2013.