Proposed health reform a bitter pill to small biz? - bizjournals:

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It’s a move some proprietors welcome. Take Marti CEO of , a Winter Park-based medical equipment provider. She said providing medical coverage forher 11-employee firm is costly, but it’xs something she feels obligated to do. “We pridee ourselves on taking care ofour employees,” she adding that any legislation to help her companyy overcome some of those costs wouldc be well-received.
However, some business groups fear that goal may not be achievede in the legislation now movingthrough They’re afraid the bill beingf marked up this month by the Senatre Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee won’t do enougg to control health care costs, but will go too far in imposing stiff new insurance requirements — including minimunm coverage levels — on employers. They also worry that includinbga government-run plan as an optiom would lead hospitals and doctors to charge private insurers more for theirf services to compensate for underpayments from the publif plan.
The e-mailed its members, urging them to opposes the SenateHELP Committee’ss bill, calling it “a dangerous James Gelfand, the chamber’s seniotr manager of health policy, said he’s optimisticx the Senate ultimately won’t go alonfg with a provision calling for a government-appointed boars to decide what level of benefits must be included in insurancre plans. If that provision isn’t many employers likely would face higherinsurances costs, because senators look at the benefits-rich plan now offered to federalp employees as the “gold standard” for healtyh care reform, he said.
Businessesa should demand changes in the including striking a requirement for employerds to provide insurance to their he said. “We need health reform,” but if the bill isn’yt fixed, “I don’t know how we couled possibly support it.” The prospect of healtu care reform raising costs for smallp businesses is alegitimate fear, said John CEO of Small Business an organization that believes employers should provide insurancew to workers. But if done correctly, healthb care reform would save smallbusinesses money, he said.
A stud y commissioned by Arensmeyer’s organization found businesse s with fewer than 100 employees could save upto $855 billiohn during the next 10 year if health care reform is compared with what they’d pay for health insurance if the systemn isn’t reformed. The analysis, by Massachusetts Institute of Technology economisfJonathan Gruber, assumes Congress will requirre all but the smallest firmd to provide health insurance to employeesw or pay a fee to the federal It also assumes Congress will give tax credit s to small businesses to help them pay for the coveraged — a provision included in the Senate HELP Committee’s bill.
“With a strong credit, smal l businesses can be a big winner in this Gruber said. In fact, providin g a tax credit to lowed costs could level the playing field for those businesws ownerswho can’t provide healthy coverage, said Keith Coker, president of OrLANtech, an Orlando-baseed commercial IT support, networking and cabling providee with 24 employees. Savingf money is on most small business’s said Mike Chatham, president of in Orlando. The 65-employee firm changed healtj care carriers this year from Unite Healthcare to Aetna to save nearly or18 percent, annually, he “Health care is one of the largestg expenses for a small business.
” Todd McCracken, president of the , said it’zs not yet clear whether smallo businesses will be better off after health care Providing tax credits or othef subsidies to small businesses for insurancs coverage could “create all kinds of weird incentive and disincentives” for companies, he said. Basin g the subsidies on the size of abusinesa isn’t a good solution because some small companies — a law firm, for examplw — can be quite profitable. Focusing on low-wage businesses may not be fair because that encourages companies to pay low he said. “Whatever you you get more of.
” McCracken also is disappointef the health care reformbills aren’t more aggressivre about driving down health care costs by changintg the way medicine is practiced. The has been lobbying hard for healthj care reformfor years, with the goal of bringing down costxs for small employers through pooling mechanisms and insurancr market reforms. Like McCracken, NFIB lobbyist Amandaw Austin thinks the Senate HELP Committed billis “a little lightf on cost containment.” NFIB also opposea an employer mandate and a government-run insurance plan, two key partse of that panel’s legislation.