The View From Your Sickbed

A reader writes:

Today I sat in my company's annual Benefit Open Enrollment Review where representatives from Human Resources explained the changes that would occur in 2010. It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone but the employees will be paying more in premiums and deductibles. Our deductibles have not increased in 10 years so this is a hard pill to swallow.  One slide set forth all the reasons that our health care costs were increasing.  Listed among the reasons for the rising costs was the impact caused by the uninsured and the under insured.  

One employee raised his hand and said, "if I'm doing the math right, the employee's costs are increasing 20%". Needless to say, the mood in the conference room was just short of hostile. I looked to a coworker sitting next to me and said, if this can't convince people of the need for the public option I don't know what will. October is the month of Open Enrollment for many corporations across the country.  My company cannot be the only one that is passing through the rising costs to its employees next year. I wonder what the impact of these meetings will be in the coming months.