Ellen of Nashville, TN
Ellen of Nashville, TN writes:
My husband and I own a custom cabinet shop that he started over 20 years ago and I joined when we married in 1998. We had one employee but by 2006 we had outgrown our garage in White House and needed more help as well. So we moved to a larger space in Nashville and started hiring.
Then the bottom fell out of the housing market. We are fortunate to work with resilient, respectable contractors who were able to weather the storm, and we survived with them for the next two years. By 2010 with an improving economy, we were growing again.
My search for health insurance started in 1998 when I needed to find coverage for my husband and myself. I also felt that it was important for our employee(s) to be covered. So I started researching health plans.
I discovered that companies with only a few employees must submit medical records for all eligible employees so that the premiums can be averaged out. One older employee with pre-existing conditions raised the rate for healthier employees which meant the younger ones did not want to participate.
Realizing that a group plan wouldn’t benefit people working for a small company I got individual plans for my husband and myself and gave up the dream of providing health insurance for employees.
In 2016 I learned of a new employee plan that only looked at age and sex to determine premiums. I am proud to say that we now offer health insurance to our employees!
All small businesses are not all wealthy businesses. I am so proud that we finally accomplished this goal for our employees. Please don’t let the ACA be repealed before a better plan can be enacted. Businesses as well as individuals depend on it.
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