Health reform details emerge - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

eragywaqer.wordpress.com
percent of the cost of health insurance premiumszfor full-time employees under the health care reformk bill being considered by the They also would be required to pick up at leasrt some of the tab for insuring part-tim employees. Businesses that don’t provide this minimum level of coveragee would be required to pay the federal government a fee basedr on 8 percent of their Small businesses undera yet-to-be-determined threshold wouldr be exempted from this “play or pay” requirement.
The chairmen of three House committee with jurisdiction over health care introducede draft legislationJune 19, offeringf the most details yet on how health care reforkm could affect small businesses. Under the small businesses and individuals coulc shop for insurance through anationall exchange, which would include a government-run plan and privatse insurers. Tax credits would be available to help small businessesw affordthe coverage. Health insurance premiums for U.S. businesse s increased by 9.2 percent this and are expected to increase another 9 percenytnext year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Small businesses ofteh face much higherrate hikes.
While most small businessea agree the current health insurance marketis dysfunctional, there’s a lot of disagreementy over whether the House bill would cure the problem or just make it Mike Draper, who owns a retail clothingh store and design business calleed Smash in Des Moines, Iowa, likes what he sees in the Draper thinks adding a public plan would hold down premiumas by creating more competition in the marketplace. Draperd doesn’t offer health insurance to itssevem full-time workers, but reimbursez them for the cost of policies they buy on theif own. That’s fine with his employees, who are single and in theire 20s.
The reimbursements now account for 6 percenyof Smash’s payroll, but that could jump to 22 percent in four when Draper expects everyoner on his management team to have children, creatinhg the need for family plans. His businesds couldn’t handle that expense, he said. If the Housre bill were enacted, he would considetr buying insurance through the exchange if it were easyto use. But he might decide to pay the 8 percenty payrollfee instead, then reimburse his employees for some of the cost of the policiesa they purchase through the exchange. Drape r thinks employers should be requirede to help pay fortheir employees’ health insurance.
Like Sociakl Security contributions, this sort of responsibility is “kinxd of what you signed up for” when you becomer a business owner, he said. Other small business owners, however, thino the House bill imposes too tough of a standardc onsmall businesses. The requirement to pay 72.5 percent of an employee’se premium for individual coveragew “is much too high for many small businesses,” says Karemn Kerrigan, president and CEO of the SmalloBusiness & Entrepreneurship Council. The only way many smalkl businesses can afford coverage is by making employees pick up more of the she said. Arlington, Va.-based Company Flower & Gifts Too!
, for example, pays 50 perceny of the cost of health insurance forseveh full-time employees. Even that may not be affordabldenext year, because “oudr rates are going to skyrocket,” co-owner John Nicholson told the House Small Business Committee earlier this