In 2008/09, only 37% of Wisconsin’s employers with fewer than 50 employees offered health benefits, down 12% from 49% in 1998/99. This trend is very disturbing for small-business-working Wisconsinites who all realize health insurance premiums are on the rise.

In the state of Wisconsin, health insurance prices are going up for everyone across the board. Although public union workers statistically have the best and most affordable health care, as well as lifelong benefits once retiring, they are still being asked to put a lot more into the pot in order to receive these benefits.

For the private employee, the man or woman whose taxes pay for public service, shopping for individual packages means that they’ll be paying over 100% more for insurance in a lot of cases, if they’re even insured at all.

And with the country’s new health care legislation looking as if it will hold up in the courts, every American will be mandated to purchase insurance. If their employers can find loopholes to not offer discounted group insurance packages, and the prices of health insurance are obviously not going to come down but rather go up, the idea of middle class will no longer exist—at least in Wisconsin—unless you happen to be a member of a public-service union.

Hopefully this trend will not catch on nationwide, but it certainly threatens to. More and more reports are coming out about private companies dropping group insurance packages due to the extremely high prices employers have to pay in due to the new health care legislation.

How Wisconsin Affects You

Even if your employer doesn’t drop your insurance, it is still a wise move to educate yourself about how to save money on insurance should the time come when you’re left to fend for yourself and have to legally purchase insurance under penalty of law.

Be sure that you read around the blog here for some great money-saving tips on insurance. You just never really know when they’ll come in handy for you and your family.

Things are moving really fast in the health care legislation mess we have going on. They may seem to be moving slow, but they’re going a lot faster than expected. Before you know it, you could be out of insurance and facing stiff penalties for not buying your own.