The Affordable Care Act (ACA also known as Obamacare) will see premiums rise in the state of California for both small businesses and individuals going into next year. According to Covered California, “health insurance premiums for 5,700 small businesses in California — which employ roughly 47,000 workers — will go up 4.6 percent in 2019.” This is a much small increase than in years past “when premiums rose between 5 and 8 percent each year”, and better than the individual insurance which will rise 8.7 percent for roughly 2.3 million Californians.
According to the SF Chronicle, the increase doesn’t apply to everyone jut “the small slice of California companies and workers that get their health insurance from Covered California for Small Business, the exchange created under the Affordable Care Act where companies with 100 or fewer workers can buy health plans for their employees. Most of the state’s small businesses buy health insurance directly from insurance companies or from other exchanges including Cal Choice.”
Despite promises from the current administration of a change to health insurance, little has been done on an individual stand point to create significant change. On the small business standpoint, the Trump administration has now made it possible for firms to collective purchase insurance at lower rates, so long as these companies are willing to forgo certain previously Obamacare insurance requirements.
