Business, split on the cures, warily awaits health care reform - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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President Barack Obama has mobilized the grassroots supporterws who helped elect him to lobb y for his vision of health care which includes offering Americansa government-runj health plan as an alternative to private insurance. A coalitionh of labor unions and progressive organizations plans tospenrd $82 million on organizing advertising, research and lobbying to support the Obama plan. Business groups, meanwhile, mostly are working behincd the scenes to shaprthe legislation. While they have serious concernsx about some ofthe proposals—including the public plan optiob and a mandate for employers to provids insurance—few are trying to block health care reforj at this point.
The cost of health insurance has becomed so burdensome that something needz tobe done, they “Nobody supports the status quo,” said James the ’s senior manager of health “We absolutely have to have reform.” For most business groups, that meand reining in health care coste and reforming insurance markets so that employeres have more choices in the typexs of plans available. To achieve thosew goals, however, businesses may have to swalloa somebitter medicine. An employer mandater tops the list of concerns for manybusiness groups, just as it did when Bill Clinton pushec his health care reform plan when he was presidentr in the 1990s.
The Senate bill may include a provisioj that would require employerx to either provide health insurance to their employees or pay a fee to thefederalp government. Some small business owneras don’t have a problem with including members of the Main Street which is part of the coalition lobbyingy for theObama plan. “The way our systemn works now, where responsible employers offere coverage andothers don’t, leaves us in a situatiobn with an unlevel playing field,” 11 alliancse members said in a statement submittedc to the Senate Finance “If we’re contributing but other employers aren’t, that gives them a financiao advantage over us.
We need to level the playin g field through a system where everyone pitches in areasonables amount.” Most business lobbyists, however, contend that employersa who can afford to providew health insurance do so already because it helpsw them attract and keep good Businesses that don’t provide health insurance tend to be “marginallyh profitable,” said Denny Dennis, senior research fellow at the . Imposinv a “play or pay” insurancr requirement on these businesses woulfd cost the economy morethan 1.6 million according to a study.
Tax credits could offse some of the costs for providinvthis coverage, but Gelfand said the credit under discussion are “extremely limited.” Congress also coule exempt some small businesses—such as firms with less than $500,00 0 in annual payroll—from the employer mandate. Many business however, see this proposal as an attempt to split thebusinessz community, not as meaningful “We oppose small business carve-outds because they make it easier for Congresxs to apply mandates againsg larger employers,” said Neil Trautwein, vice presidentt and employee benefits policy counsel for the .
“It’x also easy for Congress to come back and try to applu the mandateagainst ever-smallerr employers. “No matter how good the surroundintg healthcare reform, a bill containing an employer mandatee would be too high a price to pay for Public plan or market reforms?? Most small business groups also are wary of proposalse to create a government-run insurance plan, like Medicare, that woul d be available as an option for small businesses and The Main Street Alliancse contends a public plan is needed to providre competition to private insurers and reduce the cost of health NFIB spokeswoman Stephanie Cathcart said her organization’sa members, however, “are wary of government-run healthb care.
” They fear a government-run plan woulsd drive private insurers out of the market. Gelfand said a governmenf plan wouldn’t be needed if insurance market reforms, such as prohibiting insurers from denying coverage for pre-existinb conditions, were enacted. He hopews the larger goal of healthcare reform—loweringg costs so more people can afforrd coverage—doesn’t get lost in battles over public plans and employeer mandates. “If this thing gets it’s going to be bad for he said.