Today is Thursday, May 17, 2012

Small Business

Creating buzz on line with guerilla marketing, social networking, payola

Some commerical web sites get surges of traffic after they are promoted by buzz artists on social networking sites, The Wall Street Journal reports. Free link.

 

Mark Hillman bill rigs market for Anthem Blue Cross

The Mark Hilllman bill (or, the Anthem protection act of 2003), HB03-1164, is a form of socialism and anti-competition legislation because the legislature is being used by the insurance industry to rig the market in its favor.

 

Colorado fight over small business health insurance and community rating continues

Colorado’s legislators are doing a better job of sorting out a raft of poorly conceived health care reform measures than the editorial page of The Rocky Mountain News, which appears totally confused in this editorial, “Small-group insurance market still ill.”

Florida’s new risk rating system fails to help small employers

Florida dropped its modified community rating system in favor of rate bands and risk rating by health insurers, but this has failed to help small businesses buy insurance for their employees, according to the Palm Beach Post. In its news report, fewer Florida firms offering health insurance, the Post reports on a Chamber of Commerce survey that shows premiums are rising and more employers are being forced to drop coverage.

 

Risk rating health insurance premiums increases costs

When health insurers set premium rates for individuals and small employers by taking the health status of the insured people into account, they frequently price high-risk individuals and small employers out of the market, according to an article in the May-June 1999 issue of Health Affairs.  Download the article here.

 

NFIB’s Jackson opposes HB03-1013 risk rating bill

Colorado National Federation of Independent Businesses opposes health insurance rate flexibility and rate banding