Small business facing steep health insurance rate increases for 2017 health insurance may take one of three possible approaches to the problem:
1. Some will drop the group coverage and send employees to the exchange. Some employers will increase employee pay to compensate for the change. A few will attempt to reimburse employees for insurance at significant risk of IRS penalties.
2. Some will switch to a bronze insurance plan with a Health Savings Account. This generally saves some money and increases the overall benefit payout ratio of the health plan.
3. Firms with more than 20 employees may consider using a type of self-insurance with hybrid insurance plans. It is impossible to know whether this will save money until after all the employee claims are processed for the year.
With rate increases threatening to be more than 20% in some states
, I doubt that many firms will renew existing insurance coverage without changes.