Business warily waits on health-care reform - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

http://www.7iwarforum.org/article/The-Real-Healthy-Chocolate-News.html
President Barack Obama has mobilizedthe grass-root supporters that helped elect him to lobbuy for his vision of health-care reform, which includezs offering Americans a government-run healtn plan as an alternative to private insurance. A coalition of labor unions and progressive organizations plans tospendd $82 million on organizing efforts, advertising, researchu and lobbying to support the Obamaz plan. Business groups, meanwhile, mostly are working behinx the scenes to shapethe legislation.
While they have seriouds concerns about some of theproposals – including the publiv plan option and a mandatde for employers to provide insurances – few are trying to block health-car e reform at this point. The cost of healty insurance has become so burdensome that something needx tobe done, they agree. “Nobody supporta the status quo,” said James the ’s senior manager of health policy. “We absolutelyt have to have reform.” For most business that means reiningin health-care costsw and reforming insurance markets so that employers have more choices in the typese of plans available.
To achieve thos e goals, however, businesses may have to swallow some bitter An employer mandate tops the list of concernzs for manybusiness groups, just as it did when Bill Clintoh pushed his health-care reform plan when he was president in the The Senate bill may include a provision that woulde require employers to either providse health insurance to their employees or pay a fee to the federao government. Some small-business owners don’t have a problem with including members of the MainStreeft Alliance, which is part of the coalition lobbying for the Obams plan.
“The way our system works now, where responsible employers offer coverage andothers don’t, leaves us in a situatiomn with an unlevel playing 11 alliance members said in a statement submitted to the Senated Finance Committee. “If we’re contributing but othetr employers aren’t, that gives them a financial advantagwover us. We need to level the playint field through a system where everyone pitches in areasonable amount.” Most busineszs lobbyists, however, contend that employers who can affordx to provide health insurance do so because it helps them attracyt and keep good employees.
Businessesw that don’t provide health insurance tend tobe “marginall y profitable,” said Denny Dennis, seniod research fellow at the NFIB Researc Foundation. Imposing a “play or pay” insurance requiremeng on these businesses wouled cost the economy morethan 1.6 million according to a study. Tax credits coule offset some of the costs for providing this but Gelfand said the credits under discussionare “extremely Congress also could exempt some small businessezs – such as firms with less than $500,000 in annual payroll – from the employer mandate.
Many businesa groups, however, see this proposal as an attempt to split thebusiness community, not as meaningfu relief. “We oppose small business carve-outxs because they make it easier for Congress to apply mandates againstlargert employers,” said Neil vice president and employee benefits policyy counsel for the . “It’s also easy for Congressd to come back and try to apply the mandatewagainst ever-smaller employers. “No matter how good the surrounding health-carr reform, a bill containing an employe r mandate would be too high a price to payfor reform,” Trautweijn said. Public plan or market reforms?
Most small-businesxs groups also are wary of proposals to createa government-runm insurance plan, like that would be available as an optiohn for small businesses and individuals. The Main Street Alliance contends a public plan is needed to provid competition to private insurers and reduce the cost of health Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager for Health Care for Americaa Now, has been organizing Main Streeyt Alliance chapters in states across the country. He said many small-business ownerss “believe that we do need a government as an alternative toprivate insurers.
These owners “rejecgt the right-wing ideology” of Washington’sd traditional small-business organizations, he said. NFIB spokeswoman Stephanie Cathcartg saidher organization’s members, however, “arwe wary of government-run health care.” Gelfandd said a government plan wouldn’f be needed if insurance marketf reforms, such as prohibiting insurers from denying coverag e for pre-existing conditions, were enacted. He hopes the largerf goal of health-care reform lowering costs so more people can afforecoverage – doesn’t get lost in battles over public plans and employer mandates.