Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/472327
30 | Overdrive | March 2015 DAY OF RECKONING from Blue Cross Blue Shield via the exchanges. They shopped mostly on price because a subsidy to reduce premiums relative to their income was not available. Spoon ended up paying $245 monthly, Lowdermilk and her son $256, for the "Blue Advantage" plan with a $5,000 annual deductible and a broad network of doctors to suit the potential for needed coverage far from home for the flatbed- der. When open enrollment came around this year, the pair found that the plan's deductible had risen to $5,500 and the premium, for Spoon, to almost $290. That premium is well less than com- parable coverage Spoon priced prior to rollout of the Obamacare exchanges – according to Lowdermilk, as much as $900 a month. Some watchers contend that inflation of health care costs, including insurance, is slowing down since the ACA rollout, if not stopping altogether. A look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Medical Consumer Price Index reveals the slow- down, with inflation among the goods the Medical CPI measures (including health-insurance premiums) falling to about 2 percent annually following many pre-2009 years well above 4 percent. During the latest open-enrollment period, Zenk saw rates "going up a little bit – not nearly at the rate you'd seen in the 1990s and early 2000s." Zenk's company specializes in health and other insurance products for owner-operators. He's also part-owner and -operator of a 30-truck all-owner-operator fleet, Iowa- based Swingline Transport. TrueNorth's TrueChoices Marketplace (TrueChoicesMarketplace. com) opened with the rollout of the health-insurance exchanges in 2013 as a private exchange geared toward owner-operators. Zenk says call volume to TrueChoices exploded as Feb. 15 approached. Since the ACA has gone into effect, "we've tripled our enrollment on the major medical component," Zenk says, referring to the ACA-compliant coverage they offer. Kari Russell of the Owner-Operator Maryland-based D&H Truck- ing owner-operator David McCombs and his wife, Holly, an insurance agent with Campbell Insurance Services of Olney, Md., have "kept our grandfa- thered plan" through the fi rst two open-enrollment periods under the Afford- able Care Act, Holly says. An individual-market plan purchased many years ago, it's a compliant one under the ACA, given it was purchased prior to the law's enactment and meets program guidelines. "For some people, it's cheaper to switch to a new plan" from the exchanges, Holly says, "but because I have the two kids on it, it's still less expensive." Holly has an interesting take on health insurance, given her proximity to her husband's car-hauling busi- ness and her own involve- ment as an independent contractor in insurance. She's not among those who perceive a deceleration in premium hikes over the years since ACA's incep- tion: "Insurance is just so much more expensive than it was before the ACA. I don't think it's slowing down, and I don't think it's going to slow down." Looking back to 2010, the year the law was passed, the McCombs family policy's premium cost has "gone up about 300 percent," she says. "Year to year, that doesn't look so bad, but that's 300 percent since 2010." Holly notes that those who underestimated 2014 income and purchased insurance on the ex- changes with a subsidy will have to repay some of that subsidy. That will be more than a few people, since average owner-operator income rose 7 percent for ATBS clients to about $56,000. Granted, "it can be hard to know what income is going to be" a year in advance, she says. "You have to really be self- responsible and track your income through the year. If it's changed signifi cantly, even by just $10,000, you need to log back on and adjust your income" on your exchange website. "Just keep checking the news," Holly says. "Once tax season hits, people are going to freak out." A COUPLE'S EXPERIENCE WITH PREMIUMS Remain on non-exchange plan Purchase on exchanges Remain on exchange plan purchased 2014 Continue to be uninsured Unsure Remain on non-exchange plan Purchase on exchanges Remain on exchange plan purchased 2014 Continue to be uninsured Unsure Owner-operators' health-insurance plans heading into 2014 year-end open enrollment 45% 8% 6% 33% 8% 45% 8% 6% 33% 8% OverdriveOnline.com poll Most covered operators remain in plans like the McCombs', secured outside the ACA exchanges, whether on a spouse's employer-provided plan or one grandfathered into ACA compliance. Maryland-based D&H Trucking owner- operator David McCombs and his wife, Holly, remain insured on a pre-ACA "grandfathered plan," though pre- mium rates continue to rise.