A quote attributed to Mark Twain goes: “Everybody complains about the weather but nobody does anything about it.”

Well, that’s how I feel about ObamaCare (which is euphemistically called “Affordable Care Act” which is amusing because it’s not Affordable and certainly not Caring, though I suppose it’s an “Act” of some kind – a bad one). Now everyone is complaining about it, but at least for the immediate future, it is the law of the land. But what if I told you that you didn’t need to put it up with it?

That you, the small business owner, could in fact, escape it?

I will show you how in a manner that will provide better health care options for those who work for you and save you money. But first I must end a fundamental myth, one perpetuated by Obamacare: Insurance is not Health Care. For too long people have been distracted by the word “insurance,” thinking that’s what they need. And that’s what ObamaCare – and the big insurance companies for that matter – want you to think. They want to stick you with a policy where you’re essentially paying for things you’re not using, and overpaying for what you do use. Would you on your own sit down and write your doctor a check for $175 every month when you might not go and see him or her once a year or even less? No. But that’s what people in essence do.

Obamacare has nothing whatsoever to do with the delivery of health care. Health care is a commodity, so you should know the cost of that commodity. The medical provider has a product and service for sale on the market place, and like every provider and vendor in every other aspect of business, price is subject to negotiation. So the system is about cash in general – your cash specifically, with the added insult of less choices. But what’s most important to know is whoever controls the cash – controls the system! The way to escape from the shackles of ObamaCare (and the high expense of traditional insurance plans) for you and your employees begins with educating yourself on the “system” of both:

  1. Healthcare is sold to medical networks at wholesale discounts.
  2. Prescriptions are sold to pharmacy benefit management companies (PBM’s) at discounts.
  3. Insurance Companies buy the above at the discounts and sell it to groups through premiums at a substantial mark-up.
  4. Major employer groups bypass the insurance companies and buy directly from medical networks and PBM’s at discounts; unbundling the medical, pharmacy and insurance components in order to do this.
  5. Small independent employers can and should do the same – you aren’t shown how. Insurance is meant to protect against the unforeseen. It was not meant to buy basic services.

To control your cost – you must:

  1. Be in a position to actually know your cost of services used.
  2. Make your cost-efficient by only paying for what is used for basic healthcare and prescriptions; Plus position yourself to pay at the institutional wholesale rate, not the marked-up premium rate.

By doing the above many employer groups that we’ve helped have benefit budgets and benefit levels that have not changed for the last five to seven years. Is there a catch? Yes: You have to be willing to be proactive.

Questions? Call Employers Committed to Control Health Insurance Costs (ECCHIC) at 1-800-280-0010.

And run, don’t walk away from Obamacare!