Small businesses wary of health care reform - Jacksonville Business Journal:

grearqakususi1426.blogspot.com
That goal, however, may not be achieved in the legislationh now movingthrough Congress, some business groups They’re afraid the bill being marked up this month by the Senate Education, Labor and Pensions Committee won’r do enough to control health care but will go too far in imposingt stiff new insurance requirements—including minimum coverage levels—on They also worry that includinyg a government-run plan as an option in new insurancwe exchanges would lead hospitals and doctorse to charge private insurers more for their servicees in order to compensate for underpayments they woulxd receive from the public plan. The U.S.
Chamber of Commercee has e-mailed its members, urging them to oppose the SenateeHELP Committee’s bill, calling it “a dangerous proposal.” James Gelfand, the chamber’s seniore manager of health policy, said now is the time for businessess to demand changes in the bill, includintg striking a requirement for employers to provid e insurance to their workers. “We need health Gelfand said, but if the bill isn’t fixed, “ don’t know how we coul possibly support it.
” The prospecgt of health care reform raising costas for small businessesis “a legitimate said John Arensmeyer, CEO of Small Business Majority, an organizatio that believes employers should provide insurance to their A study commissioned by the organization found that businesses with fewefr than 100 employees could save as much as $855 billio n over the next 10 years if healtu care reform is enacted. The analysis, conducted by Massachusettsw Institute of Technology economist Jonathan assumes that Congress will require all but the smallesf firms to provide health insurance to their employeez or pay a fee to thefederalp government, based on their size.
It also assumes that Congress will provids tax credits to small businesses to help them pay forthe coverage—a provision that is included in the Senate HELP Committee’s Todd McCracken, president of the National Small Business Association, said it’s “noyt yet clear” whether small businesses will be better off after healthh care reform. Providing tax credits or other subsidies to small businesses for insurancee coveragecould “create all kinds of weir incentives and disincentives” for companies, he said.
McCracken also is disappointede that the health care reform bills in theie earlyforms aren’t more aggressive abouft driving down health care costs by changing the way mediciner is practiced. The National Federation of Independeng Business has been lobbying hard for healtbh care reformfor years, with the goal of bringintg down costs for small employersa through pooling mechanisms and insurance market Like McCracken, NFIB lobbyist Amand a Austin thinks the Senate HELP Committee bill is “ a little light on cost NFIB also opposes an employetr mandate and a government-ruh insurance plan, two key parts of that panel’a legislation.