Government overreach on regulation of small business's health plans?

For twenty years or more my dental practice and myself has obtained our health insurance with the help of my local chapter of the NY dental society. I have not always been happy with the high costs associated with these plans but in general I have been grateful to be able to obtain a full featured health plan without belonging to a fortune 500 company.

Now I am no means against the Obama Care initiative but some of the federal rules concerning the affordable health care act are  dictating what groups constitute a bonafide "group" seem unfair to me. They are biased to larger companies since they now require 60 percent participation of employees for an employer to have a group plan.

My small office had for many years had robust employee participation, but as my employees aged they opted out when they reached the age when they could obtain Medicare coverage. Last year that just left me and my son as sole participants. When my dental assistant retired, I hired an assistant already covered by a heavily subsidized plan affordable health plan offered in N.J. . She really didn't need any of the options offered by our dental society's more expensive coverage, even if I subsidized her by 50% of her premiums.  Instead she desired that she be paid more hourly than my retiring employee who had been receiving monthly payouts to help her pay for her health insurance costs ( both in my plan and when she opted out to help her with her medicare costs).

My son has enrolled in dental school and no longer needs the coverage of my plan, since he obtained less expensive coverage from his school. Last week I received and email on Nov19th from AmWins, the administer of my dental societies health plan, informing me that my group no longer could be certified and that my coverage would be terminated on Nov 30th. Now this is short notice but  fortunately I am 65 years old and eligible of Medicare Part B . I was able to apply, at no penalty, for this coverage and some of the supplemental plans sponsored by AARP. Although my abrupt termination is inconvenient, I will probably have coverage in place in December.

What seems unfair to me is that our  dental society is not  considered a group which can offer health insurance to all its members , regardless of the the number or percentage of their employees participating. Dental overhead in Manhattan is quite high and my own profit margins have steadily declined over the last twenty years. I really can't afford to offer coverage that competes with heavily subsidized plans offered to low income families by the affordable health care act. The rules as they now stand seem to discriminate against smaller non incorporated entities that have fewer employees and may be struggling in our current healthcare climate .

That being said, yesterday was  Thanksgiving and I have a lot to be grateful for. I shouldn't complain too loudly, since 2018 has been a watershed year for me. My son has almost finished his first semester at NYU College of Dentistry and is enthusiastic about becoming a dentist.  Probably partly influenced by his decision to study dentistry, I started teaching part time at my alma mater as well. Although teaching has it's challenges, I find it stimulating and really love being able to do my small part to help train the next generation of dentists.

My dental practice is still busy and I enjoy going to work and together with my skilled staff, meeting the challenges that my practice presents. After all a good deal of life's satisfaction involves the efforts we make in order to handle and solve problems on a daily basis. The quality of lives in part stems  from our ability to  navigate potentially stormy waters and satisfaction we obtain when we achieve a successful  resolution. Life without any struggle would be boring and probably ultimately unsatisfying .

from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2018/11/government-overreach-on-regulation-of.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/