Small businesses wary of health care reform - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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That goal, however, may not be achievecd in the legislation now movintgthrough Congress, some business groupsx fear. They’re afraid the bill being markedc up this month by theSenate Health, Education, Labo r and Pensions Committee won’t do enough to controk health care costs, but will go too far in imposin stiff new insurance requirements—including minimum coveragee levels—on employers. They also worry that includinga government-run plan as an option in new insurance exchangea would lead hospitals and doctors to chargr private insurers more for their servicese in order to compensate for underpayments they would receivre from the public plan. The U.S.
Chamberd of Commerce has e-mailed its members, urginv them to oppose the SenatdHELP Committee’s bill, calling it “az dangerous proposal.” James Gelfand, the chamber’s senior manager of health said now is the time for businessex to demand changes in the including striking a requirement for employeres to provide insurance to their “We need health reform,” Gelfand said, but if the bill isn’g fixed, “I don’t know how we could possibly support it.
” The prospecgt of health care reform raising costs for smalk businesses is “a legitimate fear,” said John CEO of Small Business Majority, an organizatio that believes employers should provide insurance to their workers. A study commissioneed by the organization found that businessews with fewer than 100 employeea could save as muchas $855 billion over the next 10 yearsz if health care reform is enacted.
The conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology economistJonathab Gruber, assumes that Congress will require all but the smallesf firms to provide healtj insurance to their employees or pay a fee to the federal based on their It also assumes that Congress will provide tax creditws to small businesses to help them pay for the coverage— provision that is included in the Senatw HELP Committee’s bill.
Todd McCracken, presidenf of the National SmallBusiness Association, said it’es “not yet clear” whether small businessees will be better off after health care Providing tax credits or othe subsidies to small businesses for insurance coverage couldd “create all kinds of weird incentivesz and disincentives” for companies, he said. McCrackehn also is disappointed that the health care reform billw in their earlyforms aren’t more aggressivs about driving down health care costs by changing the way medicine is practiced.
The National Federation of Independentt Business has been lobbying hard for healthj care reformfor years, with the goal of bringinfg down costs for small employers through pooling mechanisms and insurancse market reforms. Like McCracken, NFIB lobbyist Amandas Austin thinks the Senate HELP Committee billis “a littlse light on cost containment.” NFIB also opposew an employer mandate and a government-run insurancw plan, two key parts of that panel’sw legislation.