Details begin to emerge on health-care reform - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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percent of the cost of health insuranc e premiumsfor full-time employees under the healtbh care reform bill being consideredr by the House. They also would be required to pick up at leastg some of the tab forinsuring part-time Businesses that don’t provide this minimumm level of coverage would be required to pay the federal government a fee based on 8 percentf of their payroll. Small businesses under a yet-to-be-determined threshold woule be exempted fromthis “play or pay” requirement.
The chairmejn of three House committees with jurisdictioh over health care introduced draft legislationJune 19, offerinh the most details yet on how health care refork could affect small businesses. Under the small businesses and individuals could shop for insurances through anational exchange, whicu would include a government-run plan and privat insurers. Tax credits would be available to help smalol businesses affordthe coverage. Health insurance premiums for U.S. businessed increased by 9.2 percent this and are expected to increase anothet 9 percentnext year, according to . Small businesses often face much higherrate hikes.
While most smalll businesses agree the currenr health insurance marketis dysfunctional, there’w a lot of disagreement over whethee the House bill would cure the problen or just make it worse. Mike Draper, who owns a retailo clothing store and design business calle Smash inDes Moines, Iowa, likes what he sees in the Draper thinks adding a publicx plan would hold down premiums by creating more competition in the Draper doesn’t offer health insurance to its seven full-time workers, but reimbursees them for the cost of policies they buy on theire own. That’s fine with his employees, who are singlw and in their 20s.
The reimbursements now accounyt for 6 percentof Smash’s payroll, but that couls jump to 22 percenty in four years, when Draper expects everyone on his managementf team to have children, creatingh the need for family plans. His busines couldn’t handle that expense, he If the House bill were enacted, he would consideer buying insurance through the exchangw if it were easyto use. But he mightr decide to pay the 8 percenft payrollfee instead, then reimburse his employeese for some of the cost of the policies they purchased through the exchange. Draper thinks employers should be requirerd to help pay fortheir employees’ healtgh insurance.
Like Social Security contributions, this sort of responsibilitgy is “kind of what you signed up when you become abusiness owner, he said. Other smallp business owners, however, think the House bill imposes too tougn of a standard on small The requirement topay 72.5 percentt of an employee’s premium for individual coverage “ies much too high for many small said Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of the Smallp Business & Entrepreneurship Council. The only way many small businesses can afford coverage is by makinf employees pick up more of the she said. Arlington, Va.-based Company Flowera & Gifts Too!
, for pays 50 percent of the cost of health insurancse forseven full-time Even that may not be affordable next because “our rates are going to co-owner John Nicholson told the House Small Businessa Committee earlier this month.