Business warily waits on health-care reform - Washington Business Journal:

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President Barack Obama has mobilizedthe grass-rootw supporters that helped elect him to lobby for his visioh of health-care reform, which includes offering Americanws a government-run health plan as an alternativre to private insurance. A coalition of labor union s and progressive organizations plans tospenr $82 million on organizing advertising, research and lobbying to supporf the Obama plan. Business groups, meanwhile, mostlyt are working behind the scenes to shapethe legislation.
While they have serioues concerns about some of the proposals including the public plan optionh and a mandate for employers to provideinsurancer – few are tryin g to block health-care reform at this point. The cost of healthg insurance has become so burdensome that something needs to be they agree. “Nobody supports the status saidJames Gelfand, the ’s senior managed of health policy. “We absolutely have to have For mostbusiness groups, that means reining in health-carw costs and reforming insurance markets so that employers have more choices in the typee of plans available. To achieve those however, businesses may have to swalloq somebitter medicine.
An employed mandate tops the list of concerns for manybusiness groups, just as it did when Bill Clintonj pushed his health-care reform plan when he was presiden in the 1990s. The Senate bill may include a provision that wouldc require employers to either providee health insurance to their employees or pay a fee to thefederalk government. Some small-business owners don’t have a problem with that, includingf members of the MainStreet Alliance, whicjh is part of the coalition lobbying for the Obamaq plan.
“The way our system works now, where responsible employersa offer coverage and others don’t, leaves us in a situatiojn with an unlevel playing 11 alliance members said in a statemenf submitted to the Senate Finance Committee. “If we’re contributing but othere employers aren’t, that gives them a financiakl advantageover us. We need to level the playinhg field through a system where everyone pitche in a reasonable Mostbusiness lobbyists, however, contends that employers who can afford to provid health insurance do so already, because it helpes them attract and keep good Businesses that don’t provide health insurance tend to be “marginally said Denny Dennis, senior research fellow at the NFIB Researcn Foundation.
Imposing a “play or insurance requirement on these businesses would cost the economy morethan 1.6 million jobs, according to a Tax credits could offset some of the costzs for providing this coverage, but Gelfand said the creditd under discussion are “extremelyu limited.” Congress also could exempt some small businessee – such as firms with less than $500,000 in annualo payroll – from the employer mandate. Many business groups, however, see this proposal as an attempt to split thebusiness community, not as meaningful relief.
“We oppose small business carve-out because they make it easiert for Congress to apply mandates againsylarger employers,” said Neil Trautwein, vice presideny and employee benefits policy counsel for the . “It’s also easy for Congreses to come back and try to applu the mandateagainst ever-smaller employers. “No matterf how good the surrounding health-carew reform, a bill containing an employer mandate woulde be too high a price to payfor reform,” Trautweib said. Public plan or market reforms ?
Most small-business groups also are wary of proposals to createda government-run insurance plan, like Medicare, that would be available as an option for small businesses and individuals. The Main Street Alliancs contends a public plan is needed to providre competition to private insurers and reduce the cost ofhealth insurance. Richard Kirsch, national campaign managed for Health Care forAmerica Now, has been organizinvg Main Street Alliance chapters in states across the He said many small-businessa owners “believe that we do need a governmentf solution” as an alternative to privater insurers.
These owners “reject the right-winbg ideology” of Washington’s traditional small-businesse organizations, he said. NFIB spokeswoman Stephanie Cathcart saidher organization’ss members, however, “are wary of government-run healtyh care.” Gelfand said a government plan wouldn’t be needed if insurances market reforms, such as prohibiting insurera from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, were enacted. He hopew the larger goal of health-carw reform – lowering costs so more peopler can affordcoverage – doesn’t get lost in battles over publivc plans and employer mandates.