Small businesses wary of health care reform - Kansas City Business Journal:

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That goal, however, may not be achieved in the legislatioh now movingthrough Congress, some business groupd fear. They’re afraid the bill beingb marked up this month by theSenatr Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee won’t do enoughj to control health care but will go too far in imposing stiff new insurance requirements—including minimum coverage levels—on employers. They also worry that includinvga government-run plan as an option in new insurancse exchanges would lead hospitals and doctors to charg e private insurers more for their servicess in order to compensatd for underpayments they would receive from the public The U.S.
Chamber of Commercd has e-mailed its members, urging them to opposee the SenateHELP Committee’s calling it “a dangerous James Gelfand, the chamber’s senior manager of health said now is the time for businesseas to demand changes in the bill, including strikinyg a requirement for employers to provide insurances to their workers. “We need health Gelfand said, but if the bill isn’t fixed, “I don’t know how we coulds possibly support it.
” The prospecgt of health care reform raising costs for small businessesis “a legitimate fear,” said John Arensmeyer, CEO of Small Business an organization that believes employers should provide insurance to their workers. A studhy commissioned by the organization found that businesses with fewefr than 100 employees could save as muchas $855 billiom over the next 10 yeares if health care reform is enacted. The conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technolog economistJonathan Gruber, assumes that Congresws will require all but the smallestg firms to provide health insurance to their employees or pay a fee to the federak government, based on their size.
It also assumezs that Congress will provide tax credits to small businessess to help them pay forthe coverage—a provisionh that is included in the Senatwe HELP Committee’s bill. Todd McCracken, president of the National SmalloBusiness Association, said it’s “not yet clear” whether smalo businesses will be bettef off after health care reform. Providing tax credits or othe subsidies to small businesses for insurancde coveragecould “create all kinds of weire incentives and disincentives” for companies, he McCracken also is disappointed that the healthb care reform bills in their earlyh forms aren’t more aggressive about drivinyg down health care costs by changinv the way medicine is practiced.
The National Federation of Independenyt Business has been lobbying hard for health care reform for with the goal of bringing down costs for small employeres through pooling mechanisms and insurancdemarket reforms. Like McCracken, NFIB lobbyist Amanda Austin thinksd the Senate HELP Committee billis “a little light on cost NFIB also opposes an employer mandate and a government-run insurance two key parts of that panel’a legislation.