Small businesses wary of health care reform - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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That goal, however, may not be achieved in the legislatio now movingthrough Congress, some business groupas fear. They’re afraid the bill being marked up this month by theSenate Education, Labor and Pensions Committee won’t do enough to contro health care costs, but will go too far in imposinhg stiff new insurance requirements—includingt minimum coverage levels—on employers. They also worrgy that includinga government-rum plan as an option in new insurance exchangews would lead hospitals and doctors to charge private insurere more for their services in order to compensate for underpayments they wouldf receive from the public plan. The U.S.
Chambe r of Commerce has e-mailed its members, urgingb them to oppose the SenateHELP Committee’s bill, calling it “za dangerous proposal.” James Gelfand, the chamber’s senior manager of healtgh policy, said now is the time for businesses to demand changes in the bill, including striking a requiremengt for employers to provide insurance to theifr workers. “We need healty reform,” Gelfand said, but if the bill isn’r fixed, “I don’t know how we coulf possibly support it.
” The prospect of healthn care reform raising costs for small businessesis “as legitimate fear,” said John Arensmeyer, CEO of Smalol Business Majority, an organization that believes employers should providse insurance to their workers. A studt commissioned by the organization found that businesses with fewer than 100 employees could save as muchas $855 billionb over the next 10 yeares if health care reform is enacted.
The analysis, conductede by Massachusetts Institute of Technology economistJonathan Gruber, assumee that Congress will require all but the smallesft firms to provide health insurance to theirr employees or pay a fee to the federapl government, based on theit size. It also assumes that Congress will provider tax credits to small businesses to help them pay forthe coverage— provision that is includedx in the Senate HELP Committee’s bill. Todd president of the National SmallBusiness Association, said it’sx “not yet clear” whetherr small businesses will be better off aftet health care reform.
Providing tax creditw or other subsidies to small businessews for insurance coveragecould “create all kinds of weirdr incentives and disincentives” for companies, he McCracken also is disappointecd that the health care reform bills in their earlyt forms aren’t more aggressive aboutr driving down health care costs by changing the way medicind is practiced. The National Federation of Independenyt Business has been lobbying hard for health care reform for with the goal of bringin down costs for small employers through pooliny mechanisms and insurance market Like McCracken, NFIB lobbyist Amandqa Austin thinks the Senate HELP Committee bill is “a little light on cost containment.
” NFIB also opposesd an employer mandate and a government-run insurance plan, two key parts of that panel’e legislation.