Since you started your own business, how do you handle medical insurance for your employees, if at all?
I started in late 2000. We offered full medical, dental, eye and life to employees and their families, free of charge to them. We grew to about 20 people pretty quickly. Then 2008 came, and since our business is so closely tied to housing, that was a gut shot. We were at 28 people at the time, and it did not take long for us to trim that to 6. We had no choice.
In the meantime, we transitioned and reinvented the company to include public utility work, schools, park districts, commercial and industrial. This took a while. We still provided full benefits to those we were able to keep.
Things started picking up and we were back to about 20 people by 2010. Still full benefits.
Then the unaffordable care act happened. Our rates about tripled overnight, so we had to cut the family coverage. That was tough to do. Now the employees had to go into their pockets to pay for medical, etc. Still a better rate than they could get on the exchange, of course, and they were able to keep their doctors.
Today, employees pay $25/paycheck for their own coverage, and 100% of what they might need for families.
Had the government stayed out of our hair, we'd still be paying full benefits. We just can't afford to do that anymore.
The moral of the story here is being able to adapt - roll with the punches. There are a lot of punches to take when you own a business, and sometimes you can't see them coming.
I'm winding down now, at 19 percent ownership, as the "kids" we hired back in 2010 buy me out and take over. That's my retirement account - the shares in my company. Thankfully the plan worked. I've made a good living and provided same for a lot of people. That feels good.