Issue link: http://www.insightdigital.biz/i/119013
for providing health insurance, and Torinus says he can���t afford not to provide it. ���We have a lot of talented people here and I can���t lose them. If I were to drop health care, my best people would go looking,��� he says. His company is self-insured for health care with a catastrophic insurance policy for cases that go over $200,000. Businesses have three choices, Torinus says. They can drop health coverage and pay the penalty, stay with coverage and manage it, or go to a defined contribution plan where they give employees a fixed contribution, $5,000 as an example, to buy their own coverage on the public exchange where they might pick up a federal subsidy, maybe $3,000 or $4,000. ���The average family spends $16,500 on health care in the U.S., so $8,000 or $9,000 is not going to be enough to buy a decent policy,��� he says. Serigraph has succeeded with its plan of using aggressive management of costs, including negotiating favorable prices with local providers, says Torinus. Serigraph spends about $9,000 per employee, he says. Nationally, best practice costs are $8,000 to $8,500 per employee, per year. Torinus is critical of Obamacare for not addressing health care costs. ���Smart employers are doing intelligent, innovative management of health care, and they will be able to continue to offer it at a reasonable price,��� he says. ���If the public did the same thing, you could have universal coverage; if they just managed the damned costs we could afford it.��� Torinus expects small companies will continue to drop health insurance as a benefit for their staff. Currently, about 60 percent of the country���s 3 million businesses provide health care; it used to be 70 percent, he says, and it has been dropping about one percentage point a year. ���By the time all these businesses make a decision on staying in health care, we will be down to 50 percent,��� Torinus says. w w w. i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m Experience. A simpler web. Easier, more efficient, more customizable, and definitely more user-friendly: The new www.deltadentalwi.com is everything you love about Delta Dental ��� on the web. A simpler website makes for a better experience. Experience. The Delta Dental Difference. A p r i l 2 013 ��� Insight | 31