The Cost of Coverage Business owners can't seem to get a break. Just when they are about to get a boost in the tax deduction on their health insurance premiums, there's talk among insurers of raising rates for all types of business insurance coverage. It was just two weeks ago that Congress passed a bill to make health insurance premiums 100 percent deductible for the self-employed, beginning this year. And that's not all. Health insurers have squeezed the doctors and hospitals about as far as they can go.
Good healthcare is people and equipment intensive, and the people and equipment are expensive.
There are tremendous pressures built up in the system. Something has to give, says Goldsholle. The rate hikes will likely hit them the hardest because they're too small to pack much negotiating power - a factor that's responsible for the high rates most of them already pay. These rate hikes come at a time when insurance companies are suffering from decreased earnings and falling stock prices. As a result, many are retreating from a long-standing price war that has kept prices down for several years.