Business working behind scenes to shape health care reform - Wichita Business Journal:

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President Obama has mobilizedsthe grass-roots supporters that helped electr him to lobby for his vision of health care reform, which includez offering Americans a government-run health plan as an alternativwe to private insurance. A coalitiojn of labor unions and progressive organization s plans tospend $82 million on organizing efforts, research and lobbying to support the Obam a plan. Business groups, meanwhile, mostly are working behin the scenes to shapethe legislation. Although they have serious concernsz about some of theproposalas — including the public plan option and a mandatre for employers to provide insurance few are trying to bloclk health care reform at this point.
The cost of healthh insurance has become so burdensome that somethin needs tobe done, they agree. “Nobody supports the status saidJames Gelfand, the ’s senior manager of healt policy. “We absolutely have to have reform.” For most businessd groups, that means reining in healthb care costs and reforming insurance marketsx so that employers have more choices in the typeds ofplans available.
To achieve those however, businesses might have to swallow some bitter An employer mandate tops the list of concerns for manybusinesz groups, just as it did when Bill Clinton pushedc his health care reform plan in the The Senate bill might includs a provision that would requirer employers to either provide health insurancde to their employees or pay a fee to the federalk government. Some small-business owners don’t have a problem with that, including members of the MainStreert Alliance, which is part of the coalitiobn lobbying for the Obama plan.
“The way our syste works now, where responsible employers offerd coverage andothers don’t, leaves us in a situatio with an unlevel playing field,” 11 alliance members said in a statemengt submitted to the Senate Financre Committee. “If we’re contributing but other employersa aren’t, that gives them a financial advantageover us,” the statementf said. “We need to levell the playing field throughh a system where everyone pitchew in areasonable amount.” But most business lobbyistds contend that employers who can afforc to provide health insurance do so already because it helps them attracy and keep good employees.
Businessea that don’t provide health insurance tend tobe “marginally profitable,” said Denny Dennis, senior research fellow at the NFIB Researcu Foundation. Imposing a insurance requirement on these businesses would cost the economy morethan 1.6 million jobs, according to a study. Tax credit s could offset some of the costs for providingtthis coverage, but Gelfand said the creditss that are under discussion are “extremelyy limited.” Congress also could exempt some small businesses — such as firms with less than $500,009 in annual payroll — from the employee mandate.
But many business groups see this proposal as an attempr to split thebusinessz community, not as meaningful relief. “We oppose small-busineses carve-outs because they make it easief for Congress to apply mandates againstlarger employers,” said Neil vice president and employee benefits polic y counsel of the National Retai l Federation. “It’s also easy for Congress to come back and try to applyu the mandateagainst ever-smaller employers. “No matter how good the surrounding healthcare reform, a bill containint an employer mandate would be too high a price to pay for Trautwein said. Public plan or market reforms?