July 2012 Newletter

JULY EVENTS
2012 Legislative Wrap Up

Thursday, July 12: 7 to 8 p.m. Webinar: Google+ with Rick Stilwell
Are you a Google+ user or planning to add it to your marketing mix? Join us and guest expert Rick Stilwell to find out all about Google+ including circles, hangouts and how to use this Google network to benefit your business.

Tuesday, July 17: 5:30 to 7:30 Meet and Greet Networking at Rosso Trattoria
Join us on Tuesday, July 17 for networking at Rosso Trattoria located at Trenholm Plaza 4840 Forest Drive in Columbia. Cash bar and non-alcoholic drinks available. Be sure to bring plenty of business cards!

Don’t forget to mark your calendars every 2nd Thursday of each month for our informational webinars and every 3rd Tuesday of each month for networking events.

Also stay tuned for an exciting announcement about our August networking event!

2012 State Legislative Wrap-Up

Numerous legislative efforts were on the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce (SCSBCC) agenda this year. While the Legislature will make one more trip back to Columbia to address some gubernatorial budget vetoes, the die has been cast for everything else. And because this was the second year of the two year session, what did not get done now has to start from the beginning in January.

First the bad news.

INSURANCE INDUSTRY DEFEATS CONSUMERS

Health Insurance

To really have competition between health insurance companies you have to stop allowing the dominant carrier in the state, Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS), from contractually forcing healthcare providers to charge BCBS competitors higher fees. This process is called the “most favored nation” clause in a contract.

If one health insurance company is guaranteed to have the lowest reimbursement rates for doctors and hospitals, that company has lower costs and thus can be more competitive in premiums charged. But that company also has no incentive to drive down healthcare costs. In fact, it has an incentive to allow healthcare costs to increase thus enabling it to make more profit through higher premiums. As a result the other healthcare companies are forced to have higher costs and thus less competitive premiums. With no market-driven containment on healthcare costs, premiums for all health insurance companies increase.

Read more here.

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