On the Morality of Insurance Premiums

By ANISH KOKA, MD As CVS-Aetna merger talks fill the air this Christmas season and experts weigh in on the impact this will have on the economy and consumers alike, I’m sitting at a little desk in a little office contemplating health insurance. I run a little shop that’s about as far from CVS-Aetna as you can get in the health care space : a solo practice doctor with four full time employees and revenues a little south of $65 billion dollars.  I shouldn’t feel too alone.  Small businesses account for 99% of US firms and employ almost half of all private sector employees.  But knowing my problem is one shared by many provides only partial solace. Prior to arrival of the ACA, I provided health insurance to everyone through the company.  At the time I had 3 full time employees and the insurance broker I worked with got me a quote for $1300 / month.  Now, I really didn’t want to be in the providing healthcare business, so when the ACA arrived with its individual market I was happy to facilitate buying health insurance from the exchanges.  So initially, I chose to pay for my employees plans on the individual market.  I was quickly told by my accountant that paying for my employees insurance in this manner was running afoul of a three letter entity of the federal government called the IRS. Apparently the individual ACA market premiums were allergic to being deducted in this pre-tax manner.   Fine.  So I went ahead and paid each employee $6000 per year extra...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized ACA Anish Koka CVS-Aetna IRS Source Type: blogs