Minding Ag's Business
Marcia Zarley Taylor DTN Executive Editor

Monday 03/22/10
Picking Sides On Health Insurance

Whether you're for or against the historic health care reforms mandated by Congress late Sunday may depend whether you have access to insurance, and how many workers you employ. At last count, USDA says about 18 percent of all farm households have no health insurance, and that number soars to about 50 percent for U.S. dairy farm families. What's more, a recent White House study found that small business pays up to 18 percent more for the identical coverage big business buys, thanks to higher overhead and commissions on insurance.

Frank Gasperini, executive vice president of the National Council on Agricultural Employers, tells me his members are "all over the map" in how they look at the new law, largely depending on the number of workers they employ. So far most of the news coverage makes the bill sound like everyone works full-time at a desk or a factory, not in retail or seasonal labor, he says. But how the law treats part-time and seasonal workers is an issue of concern for labor-intensive specialty crops. Regulations will need to clarify how many hours per quarter or per year constitute full-time employment.

Employers with more than 50 workers must offer health coverage by 2014, or pay a $2,000-per-employee fee. The smallest businesses--those with fewer than 25 employees and who earn relatively low wages--may qualify for tax credits up to 50 percent of their health costs to help pay the extra expenses.

For the first time, noninsured individuals and small business will have access to insurance pools that offer the same kind of purchasing power that employees of Fortune 500 companies enjoy. Premium subsidies will be available for low-income households, up to $88,200 for a family of four. So the theory sounds good, but the devil will be in the details.

© Copyright 2010 DTN/The Progressive Farmer, A Telvent Brand. All rights reserved.
Posted at 4:18PM CDT 03/22/10 by Marcia Zarley Taylor
Comments (6)
Health Care Reform: FDR tried in 1938, Truman tried in 1950, IKE got employer paid for health insurance for employees. LBJ got Medicare passed. Now 70 years from the first attempt at health care reform the current attempt at health care reform nears signing. Future years will no douth wittness changes in the current proposed legislation. The government has been involved in health care since IKE's 1954 legislation. There are always winners and losers in public policies. A lot more needs to be done. In the fifties the health unions killed Truman's legislation; i.e., hospitals, doctors, nurses, and insurance companies. The health industry and the Republicians had plenty of time to develop their "better" health care plan. They did not. They chose to be nay sayers and fill the airwaves with negative opinions not constructive alternative policy.
Posted by DAVE CAPEK at 8:41AM CDT 03/23/10
Ms. Taylor: If a small business is not economically viable enough to provide health care to its principals, perhaps the owners of that business should consider liquidating it. The sorry state of health care in this country to small business owners and workers, and a growing corps of wage earners in middle class America invited action from the government. The current system has failed a large contingent of Americans with mismanagement, rising insurance costs, double billing, rising hospital and doctor costs, and exploding costs of senior care in nursing homes. My health care insurance is up 44% in three years. I own a farming corporation and a development company. I will take my chances with government care versus continuing to pay the rising costs associated with the existing system. Proposed sources of taxation to fund the costs are acceptable. We have become a nation of chronic whiners and complainers with no vision, and with one foot in the grave and the other in a bucket of cement. --James Zeeb
Posted by Marcia Taylor at 9:45AM CDT 03/23/10
As a Canadian, I've always found this American health care debate hard to get around on . Still dunno what to think about it. In Canada health care is not even thought of. It's taken care of, everybody gets it, the government pays. Sure we've got problems, but everybody is in, its universal. Nobody pays premiums, everybody gets taken care of. Sure there are anomalies, but if you farm in Canada, health care is in the rear view mirror. I hope my American friends are satisfied with the latest changes in this US Health care reforms.
Posted by Philip Shaw at 4:46PM CDT 03/23/10
Too many americans have become lazy, uneducated, "life is unfair" crybabies. The US needed some reforms in health care, obviously, however Obamacare isn't what was needed. The ignorant masses will follow the progressives, like lemmings over the cliff, and change this once proud, capitalistic nation to a sad, BANKRUPT socialist nation (see european union). Where has self-reliance and individualism gone ? They have been run over by the politically correct, keep no score at ballgames everyones a winner, let the government take care of me, crowd.
Posted by Sam Bam at 8:49PM CDT 03/23/10
In order to reach agreements on provisions and pay for the so-called reform, powerful groups and politicians made deals and what could be called bribes. Congressional leaders and the administration minimized the significance "process". Of course the final product had to be full-throated government-funded abortion. It is a sick thing when the defenseless become the target of government legislation. Whoever the government decided are wealthy are also targets with their high incomes seen as unnecessary, not really belonging to them, or in the case of very good health insurance policies, not to the government's liking. Remember when the government chooses targets you do not want to be one of them. Landowners eventually become favorite targets of big governments, too.
Posted by Fred Fahlberg at 11:02AM CDT 03/25/10
I think Sam & Fred's comments are worth noting. Too many Americans sit in front of the idiot box where the government/media I thas implanted their idealisms into programming/commercials etc. I trust no politicians in congress dems or repubs. They all are corrupt. As far as I'm concerned: Washington=Hollywood. If this healthcare plan is such a good idea, why don't the politicians and president adopt it? If this plan is such a good idea, why did it take so much arm twisting/bribing to pass it when for a year the dems had complete control of congress? Furthermore, who is the gov't. to mandate that any size business must provide health care to it's employees? It's not enough that your employer provides a job/wages/bonuses/401 k's/vacation time? Lastly, let American's not forget the reason the housing market collapsed stems from previous administrations forcing lending institutions to make loans to unqualified buyers that they would not have originally made before. Yeh, the gov't. has healthcare under control.
Posted by JIM SNOW at 9:20AM CDT 03/26/10
Post a Blog Comment:
Your Comment:
Post Comment
DTN reserves the right to delete comments posted to any of our blogs and forums, for reasons including profanity, libel, irrelevant personal attacks and advertisements.
Blog Home Pages
September2010  
S M T W T F S
         1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30      
Subscribe to Minding Ag's Business RSS
Recent Blog Posts
  • Why SURE Showers Disaster Aid
  • Cash Rent on a Binge
  • Redefining Farm Size
  • Map the Farm Disaster Money
  • SURE Disaster Payments Make Princes and Paupers
  • Corn Belt Still Suffers from 2008 Hangover
  • Farm Program a Disaster in Progress
  • Time is Ticking on Tax Time Bomb
  • Stampede to Refinance
  • Can Estate Tax Reform Save the Last Farm?
  • Guilty on Fuel Buys?
  • What's Wrong With ACRE?
  • VIP Farms Tilt Global Grain Markets
  • In Former Soviet Union, Converting Capitalists is Harder Than We Think
  • Investors Seek Safe Haven in Farmland
  • Aren't Farm Programs Worthless Anyway?
  • Think of ACRE as a Cheap Option
  • Ask the ACRE Specialists
  • Rethink Antipathy Toward ACRE
  • Agri Europe's Green Challenge