Ep. 98: Health Benefits Costs Summit on Capitol Hill

I'm Heather Hampton Nodal.

I run, own, and operate Nodal Limited Family Farms in Illinois.

So several of ours are seasonal employees, but we have five full-time employees that are covered by our health insurance.

We've offered health insurance benefits for well over 15 years.

I'd say, you know, the number one challenge is affordability.

So the idea that we want to provide for health care for our employees is But a lot of times that seems to take the shape of health insurance, and we've seen such escalating costs for that product, no matter how we shop it.

It's a true challenge.

And then within that, we start to unpack specific things like health savings accounts and how much we can actually provide to individual employees, but then also to an employee such as myself who has family.

There are these caps in terms of how much we can put per individual.

And that can be a real stopping point, especially with how deductibles are so high at this point.

And it seems that being able to tweak some policy that would allow even your health savings amount to match your deductible or something, if in theory this is supposed to help us keep premiums down, then let's put that into action.

Well, right now, NFIB has helped champion a Choice Act, which would give us more options and flexibility in terms of tax deductibility for not only us as an employer, but also the employees.

for what they could receive then to either shop for their own plan or be part of another plan.

And I think that's one step forward in this.

We're also calling for transparency.

So transparency of pricing for services.

And I would also say transparency in the health insurance market in terms of how they discount And the type of control that gives them ultimately over more small businesses who happen to be in the health care field.

And then also advocating in the area of health savings accounts and how we can make those attached to a product like an insurance product, but yet more in line with what the deductible is for that particular product.

And also making that, again, a tax savings, essentially, because we're helping people, not just our own business at the same time.

I'm Heather Hampton Nodal.

I run, own, and operate Nodal Limited Family Farms in Illinois.

So several of ours are seasonal employees, but we have five full-time employees that are covered by our health insurance.

We've offered health insurance benefits for well over 15 years.

I'd say, you know, the number one challenge is affordability.

So the idea that we want to provide for health care for our employees is But a lot of times that seems to take the shape of health insurance, and we've seen such escalating costs for that product, no matter how we shop it.

It's a true challenge.

And then within that, we start to unpack specific things like health savings accounts and how much we can actually provide to individual employees, but then also to an employee such as myself who has family.

There are these caps in terms of how much we can put per individual.

And that can be a real stopping point, especially with how deductibles are so high at this point.

And it seems that being able to tweak some policy that would allow even your health savings amount to match your deductible or something, if in theory this is supposed to help us keep premiums down, then let's put that into action.

Well, right now, NFIB has helped champion a Choice Act, which would give us more options and flexibility in terms of tax deductibility for not only us as an employer, but also the employees.

for what they could receive then to either shop for their own plan or be part of another plan.

And I think that's one step forward in this.

We're also calling for transparency.

So transparency of pricing for services.

And I would also say transparency in the health insurance market in terms of how they discount And the type of control that gives them ultimately over more small businesses who happen to be in the health care field.

And then also advocating in the area of health savings accounts and how we can make those attached to a product like an insurance product, but yet more in line with what the deductible is for that particular product.

And also making that, again, a tax savings, essentially, because we're helping people, not just our own business at the same time.