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

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President Barack Obama has mobilizedthe grass-roots supporters that helped elect him to lobbgy for his vision of health-care reform, which includes offering Americans a government-run healthb plan as an alternative to private A coalition of labor unions and progressive organizations plans to spend $82 million on organizing efforts, advertising, research and lobbyiny to support the Obama plan. Businesws groups, meanwhile, mostly are working behind the scenes to shape the While they have serious concerns about some of the proposals including the public plan optionn and a mandate for employerds to provideinsurance – few are trying to bloco health-care reform at this point.
The cost of healt h insurance has become so burdensome that something needx tobe done, they agree. “Nobodty supports the status quo,” said James Gelfand, the ’ senior manager of health policy. “Wd absolutely have to have reform.” For most businesas groups, that means reining in health-care costse and reforming insurance markets so that employers have more choices in the typesw ofplans available. To achieve thoser goals, however, businesses may have to swallo somebitter medicine. An employer mandate tops the list of concern for manybusiness groups, just as it did when Bill Clinto n pushed his health-care reform plan when he was president in the 1990s.
The Senater bill may include a provision that would requiree employers to either provide health insurance to their employees or pay a fee to the federal Some small-business owners don’t have a problem with including members of the Main Street which is part of the coalitioh lobbying for the Obama plan. “The way our system works now, wherd responsible employers offer coverage andotherss don’t, leaves us in a situatio n with an unlevel playing field,” 11 alliance membere said in a statement submitted to the Senate Financd Committee. “If we’re contributing but other employersd aren’t, that gives them a financial advantageover us.
We need to level the playing field through a system where everyone pitches in a reasonable amount.” Most business lobbyists, contend that employers who can afford to provide health insurance do so already, becauss it helps them attracf and keep good employees. Businesses that don’t provides health insurance tend tobe “marginally said Denny Dennis, senior research fellow at the NFIB Researchg Foundation. Imposing a “play or pay” insurance requiremen t on these businesses would cost the economy morethan 1.6 million according to a study.
Tax credits couldx offset some of the costs for providing this coverage, but Gelfand said the creditx under discussion are “extremely limited.” Congressw also could exempt some small businesses such as firms with less than $500,0090 in annual payroll – from the employer Many business groups, however, see this proposao as an attempt to split the businessx community, not as meaningful “We oppose small business carve-outs because they make it easiet for Congress to apply mandatesw against larger employers,” said Neil Trautwein, vice president and employese benefits policy counsel for the .
“It’s also easy for Congresa to come back and try to applty the mandateagainst ever-smaller “No matter how good the surrounding health-care a bill containing an employer mandate woulc be too high a pricer to pay for Trautwein said. Public plan or market reforms? Most small-business groups also are wary of proposalsa to createa government-run insurances plan, like Medicare, that woulfd be available as an optionn for small businesses and individuals. The Main Streert Alliance contends a public plan is needed to provide competition to private insurers and reduce the cost ofhealtu insurance.
Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager for Healthj Care forAmerica Now, has been organiziny Main Street Alliance chapters in state across the country. He said many small-business owners “believe that we do need a governmeng solution” as an alternative to private Theseowners “reject the right-wing of Washington’s traditional small-business organizations, he said. NFIB spokeswoman Stephanie Cathcart saidher organization’sx members, however, “are wary of government-run healtn care.
” Gelfand said a government plan wouldn’t be needed if insurances market reforms, such as prohibitingv insurers from denying coverage for pre-existinh conditions, were enacted. He hopes the larger goal of health-care refor – lowering costs so more peopl can affordcoverage – doesn’g get lost in battles over public planss and employer mandates.