Business owner says some bosses may pay fine rather than insure staff

Minnesota business owner says some bosses may pay fine rather than insure staff

Christopher Snowbeck
St. Paul Pioneer Press
June 28, 2012

With the Supreme Court's decision on Thursday, June 28, to uphold the federal health law, more companies could stop offering insurance benefits.

That's the view, at least, of Larry Kocina, the owner Kocina Branding and Marketing Companies in Burnsville.

Beginning in 2014, the health law will impose a $2,000 fine per full-time employee on companies with 50 or more workers that do not offer coverage. The per-employee fine is a much smaller cost, Kocina said, than the tab for health insurance.

"It becomes a simple economic issue," he said. Health insurance is "my third highest cost of doing business. ... If I have something that will reduce that, I'll reduce it."

But Kocina isn't necessarily pleased about the change.

For starters, he thinks employers buying coverage on the private market have done a good job providing health benefits to workers. Plus, Kocina expects the government eventually will increase the size of the per-employee fine on companies.

Right now, Kocina has slightly fewer than 50 employees, so he wouldn't be subject to the fine if he stopped offering coverage. But the prospect of a fine will factor into decisions he makes about whether to try growing his business.

"I can't understand the details of the health care law, but I can understand that this is going to harm my business," Kocina said. "I'm just a free-market guy -- I think the government is clumsy."

Add to this..... those businesses with less than 50 employees won't expand to become larger (and provide more jobs). Who gets the shaft in that end? Prospective employees.

But hey... kumbaya, liberals. You got your socialist Utopia. Hope you like it when things don't turn out the way you said it would.

What's wrong with obamacare? nothing at all.

Yep.
Exactly as I thought. Typical American elitist entitlement philosophy.
It's how Americans have been taught to think...take the easy way out rather than actually do something.

TheNextPrez2012 wrote:Yep.
Exactly as I thought. Typical American elitist entitlement philosophy.
It's how Americans have been taught to think...take the easy way out rather than actually do something.

Actually doing something is taking responsibility for your own well-being. Only a leftist thinks that everyone else should be responsible for your well-being.

A spade is a spade.