Carolina Journal’s Dan Way reports here on the reality of Obamacare that faces medium-sized businesses, which will be subject to the mandate in about a year.

Already socked with rising premium costs due to Obamacare, Southern Elevator has delayed planned growth and job creation as it contemplates up to $800,000 in added annual health insurance costs a year from now, when employer mandates for medium-size businesses kick in.

“Our health care insurance agent is estimating that we will have a 10 percent increase this year that is currently being priced,” said Rodney Pitts, owner of Greensboro-based Southern Elevator.

That is on top of increases totaling 44 percent since 2012. The company now pays up to $20,000 annually for each employee with spouse and dependent coverage, which is about $9,000 more than it paid a few years ago.

“If we had to comply with the employer mandate, which would put again more Obamacare plan features in it that do not improve the coverages for our employees at all, we estimate that our increase would be 38 percent,” Pitts said.

“We’re talking about annual increases on the order of $100,000 to $300,000 a year — and that is a direct hit to the bottom line of a business that operates on very tight margins — just with what we’ve got now,” Pitts said. “If the employer mandate went in, those numbers would be more like $600,000 to $800,000.”

Now we wait to see if the conservative reformers in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate will begin to dismantle this oppressive government mandate. We must turn to a consumer-driven model that offers a menu of insurance options to meet the varying needs of the populace.