I'm in business now and from what I've gathered from our insurance company is that our rates will jump 22%. A current single emplyee in my company pays approximately $20/weekly. We cover 70% of premiums currently which helps keep the employee payment low. After this jump we refigured last week what the cost would be for that same person and they will be paying about $36/week. For a yearly cost it almost doubles for that employee. We have 40 employees in my company and our payment on premiums alone for the companiy's part will jump $25,000/month which equals $300,000 for the year that we will be paying extra this year (actually about $225,000 since 3 months have past already this year). For such a small business as ours that is a pretty big hit. We've done all the cost saving measures we can for the last 2 years but this additional hit either forces us to 1) lay-off, 2) pass cost down to the consumer, 3) cut wages, or pass on some more costs to our employees. In order to try and maintain a work force our option right now is #2. If that slows us down then #1 comes into play because almost every company out there will be passing on the extra overhead to the consumer.
