A Small Business' Experience with ObamaCare and Blue Shield of California

I am a partner and owner in a small technical consulting firm that serves high-technology firms in Silicon Valley.  Despite the global financial crisis, we've held on to all of employees in the face of an ever-changing work dynamic and very late payments from some of our clients.

One new wrinkle to our small business' finances is the impact of ObamaCare.  All employees receive have a company-funded health savings account (HSA) backed up with a high-deductible major medical plan, roughly modeled on the highly effective Singapore plan.

While correlation does not necessarily imply causation, we've experience above-average rate increases by Blue Shield of California that seem to be tied to ObamaCare.  The following chart shows our health care premiums dating back to 2007, unadjusted for inflation.

President Obama proposed his vast expansion of U.S. government healthcare back in February 2009.  Four months later, we received a 15% rate hike--slightly ahead of schedule-- followed by another 15% rate hike just seven months later.

President Obama signed ObamaCare into law in March 2010.  Just five months later, we received a massive 29% increase followed by another 1% increase just 66 days later!  Since then, we're back to a 15% roughly every 1.2 years.

The net overall effect is that health insurance premium have more than DOUBLED for our firm in the last five years!  Certainly, part of this is due to the national increase in health insurance premiums (inflation and aging employees).  However, I don't believe it to be a coincidence that the biggest increase happened immediately after ObamaCare was signed into law.

An Honest Health Care Debate?: Are We Really THIS #*&@ Stupid?

Like many Americans, yes, I'm interested in real, sensible, practical health-care reform--you know, the type that makes sense, reduces costs, and improves care. However, I just have to shake my head when I see the blatant manipulation (they're not technically lies) coming from our so-called "leaders" in Washington.

Here's a little snippet that caught my eye about a month ago in a Washington Post article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/01/AR2009070100950.html

"In the stage-managed event, questions for Obama came from a live audience selected by the White House and the college, and from Internet questions chosen by the administration's new-media team. Of the seven questions the president answered, four were selected by his staff from videos submitted to the White House Web site or from those responding to a request for 'tweets.'

"The president called randomly on three audience members. All turned out to be members of groups with close ties to his administration: the Service Employees International Union, Health Care for America Now, and Organizing for America, which is a part of the Democratic National Committee. White House officials said that was a coincidence."

If this really was "a coincidence," I would suggest that the President buy himself a lottery ticket! His luck is truly phenomenal!

The Serivce Employees International Union (SEIU)? I've heard of them. As reported in the L.A. Times and the Chicago Tribune, didn't the SEIU spend $60 million to elect the President and now have unprecedented access to the White House? The SEIU is also #9 on the list of the largest political contributors to some of our lofty, ethical elected officials (97% from only one political party--you guess which).

I'm not familiar with Health Care for America Now. That sounds like a non-partisan group interested in prudent health-care reforms, right? Let's see what I can find out about them from their web site.
http://healthcareforamericanow.org/about-us/members/

Hmm, well let's see. There's ACORN, the AFL-CIO (#31 on the top politcal donors list), American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (#2 on the list), Americans United for Change (hey, isn't their former president, Brad Woodhouse, now the communications director for the Democratic National Commitee (DNC)?). Wow, and I haven't even made it out of the 'A's yet.

Again, I wasn't familiar with the name Organizing for America until I again searched the web. Oh yeah, this was the organization that then-candidate Obama formed when he was seeking the White House. The site helped organize his campaign in different states, mobilize his volunteers, and they maintain huge E-mail list. I scroll down the page. Wait a second, is this site managed by the DNC--the same DNC where Brad Woodhouse now works but used to be with Americans United for Change? Wow, another stunning "coincidence"!

And people thought Richard Nixon was tricky. Apparently President Obama excelled in his previous role as a "community organizer." These groups are well coordinated from the top, but they are also more inbred than some crazy dog breeds.

This so-called "national debate on health care" is a complete SHAM. This is a complete SHAME!!!

Celebrate America!

After the non-stop deluge of the Congressional waterboarding of America (TARP, stimulus, cap-and-trade, health care, and a few trillion dollars later), it's time to sit back and enjoy a few weeks of long-needed rest. Let's hope that Congress takes a long, long vacation.