Shocker: small business’ health insurance premiums are accelerating

Missed this tidbit when it appeared in the NY Times two weeks ago:

Insurance brokers and benefits consultants say their small business clients are seeing premiums go up an average of about 15 percent for the coming year — double the rate of last year’s increases.

But, hey, 15 percent isn’t that bad. At least, not when compared to this:

In August, when Walter Rowen, who owns Susquehanna Glass in Columbia, Pa., sought to renew his company’s coverage for two dozen employees, he said his insurer demanded a 160 percent rate increase. Mr. Rowen said he was told his work force was “getting too old and very expensive.”