Small businesses wary of health care reform - Houston Business Journal:

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That goal, however, may not be achievec in the legislation now movingthrough Congress, some business groups fear. They’re afraid the bill being marked up this monthg by theSenate Health, Labor and Pensions Committee won’t do enough to controp health care costs, but will go too far in imposingh stiff new insurance requirements—including minimum coverage levels—on They also worry that including a government-rubn plan as an option in new insurance exchangesw would lead hospitals and doctors to charge privatew insurers more for their service s in order to compensate for underpayments they woul d receive from the public plan. The U.S.
Chambefr of Commerce has e-mailed its members, urging them to opposw the SenateHELP Committee’s bill, callin it “a dangerous proposal.” James Gelfand, the chamber’e senior manager of health policy, said now is the time for businessezs to demand changes in the including striking a requirement for employers to providwe insurance to their workers. “We need health reform,” Gelfand but if the bill isn’tt fixed, “I don’t know how we couldx possibly support it.
” The prospect of health care reforj raising costs for small businessesis “w legitimate fear,” said John CEO of Small Business Majority, an organization that believesd employers should provide insurance to their workers. A studyh commissioned by the organization found that businesses with fewer than 100 employees coulc save as muchas $855 billionm over the next 10 years if health care reform is The analysis, conducted by Massachusettds Institute of Technology economist Jonathan Gruber, assumezs that Congress will require all but the smallest firmsw to provide health insurance to theitr employees or pay a fee to the federapl government, based on their It also assumes that Congreses will provide tax credits to small businessex to help them pay for the coverage—a provisiobn that is included in the Senated HELP Committee’s bill.
Todd president of the National Small Business Association, said it’s “not yet whether small businesses will be bette r off after health care reform. Providing tax credits or other subsidies to small businesses for insurance coveragecould “creates all kinds of weirxd incentives and disincentives” for companies, he said. McCracken also is disappointed that the healthh care reform bills in their earlyformd aren’t more aggressive about driving down healty care costs by changing the way medicine is The National Federation of Independent Business has been lobbyingb hard for health care reform for with the goal of bringinh down costs for small employers through pooling mechanismds and insurance market reforms.
Like McCracken, NFIB lobbyisf Amanda Austin thinks the Senate HELP Committeee billis “a little light on cost NFIB also opposes an employer mandate and a government-run insuranced plan, two key parts of that panel’s legislation.