MIDDLETOWN, Mo. For pork producer Jim Fisher, providing health care insurance for his employees is a way to make sure he gets good workers. <\/p>\n
He farms in Northeast Missouris Pike County with his brother, David. <\/p>\n
The family has 2,600 sows and markets about 65,000 pigs annually. They have eight salaried, full-time employees. <\/p>\n
Businesses with fewer than 50 employees are exempt from the Affordable Care Acts employer mandate to provide health insurance. But, for Fisher, having health insurance for employees is a good business practice. <\/p>\n
If you want to attract employees, good employees, thats probably the No. 1 thing, Fisher says of providing health insurance. I always try to look at it, if I were looking for a job, Id be asking the same thing. <\/p>\n
Fisher buys the group insurance policy for his employees through an agent in nearby Bowling Green. <\/p>\n
All our employees, we pay 100 percent of their health care (insurance premiums), Fisher says. <\/p>\n
Like most people, Fisher has felt the effects of rising health-care costs. <\/p>\n
In the past weve had to raise the deductible, he says. . . . We try to adjust their salary to what the health care is costing us. If you get an older person, it costs more. <\/p>\n
Fishers brother, David, gets health insurance through his wifes off-farm job. Jim Fisher buys an individual health insurance plan for himself, separate from the farm-employee plan. <\/p>\n
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Farmers sorting out impact of health care<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MIDDLETOWN, Mo. For pork producer Jim Fisher, providing health care insurance for his employees is a way to make sure he gets good workers. He farms in Northeast Missouris Pike County with his brother, David. Continue reading