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

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President Barack Obama has mobilizedthe grass-rootz supporters that helped elect him to lobbgy for his vision of health-care which includes offering Americans a government-rum health plan as an alternative to privated insurance. A coalition of labor unions and progressivwe organizations plans tospend $82 million on organizing advertising, research and lobbying to support the Obama plan. Busines s groups, meanwhile, mostly are working behind the scenes to shape the While they have serious concerns abouty some of the proposals including the public plan option and a mandatre for employers to provideinsurance – few are tryinfg to block health-care reform at this point.
The cost of healthu insurance has become so burdensome that somethinfg needs tobe done, they agree. “Nobody supports the statues quo,” said James Gelfand, the ’sx senior manager of health policy. “Wee absolutely have to have For mostbusiness groups, that means reininy in health-care costs and reforming insurancew markets so that employers have more choices in the typex of plans available. To achieve those goals, however, businessesw may have to swallo w somebitter medicine.
An employer mandate tops the list of concernxs for manybusiness groups, just as it did when Bill Clintob pushed his health-care reform plan when he was president in the The Senate bill may include a provisionh that would require employers to either providse health insurance to their employees or pay a fee to the federao government. Some small-business owners don’t have a problem with that, including members of the MainStreet Alliance, which is part of the coalitiom lobbying for the Obama plan.
“The way our systej works now, where responsible employers offer coverag e andothers don’t, leaves us in a situatiobn with an unlevel playing field,” 11 alliance membera said in a statement submitted to the Senate Finance “If we’re contributing but otherf employers aren’t, that gives them a financiao advantage over us. We need to level the playinh field through a system wherde everyone pitches in areasonable amount.
” Most businese lobbyists, however, contend that employersa who can afford to provide healtg insurance do so because it helps them attract and keep good Businesses that don’t provide health insurances tend to be “marginally said Denny Dennis, senior research fellow at the NFIB Researchh Foundation. Imposing a “play or insurance requirement on these businesses wouldf cost the economy morethan 1.6 million according to a study. Tax credits could offset some of the costsw for providingthis coverage, but Gelfand said the credits undedr discussion are “extremely limited.
” Congress also could exempt some small businessees – such as firms with less than $500,000 in annual payroll from the employer mandate. Many business groups, see this proposal as an attempt to split thebusinessd community, not as meaningful relief. “Wr oppose small business carve-outs because they make it easief for Congress to apply mandatea againstlarger employers,” said Neil vice president and employee benefite policy counsel for the . “It’as also easy for Congress to come back and try to apply the mandat eagainst ever-smaller employers.
“No matter how good the surrounding health-care reform, a bill containingh an employer mandate would be too high a pric e to payfor reform,” Trautwein Public plan or market reforms? Most small-business groups also are wary of proposals to create a government-run insurance plan, like Medicare, that would be availablwe as an option for small businesses and individuals. The Main Streetg Alliance contends a public plan is needed to provider competition to private insurers and reducew the cost of health Richard Kirsch, national campaign manageer for Health Care for Americsa Now, has been organizinbg Main Street Alliance chapter s in states across the country.
He said many small-busineszs owners “believe that we do need a government as an alternative to private Theseowners “reject the right-winvg ideology” of Washington’s traditional small-business organizations, he said. NFIB spokeswomanh Stephanie Cathcart saidher organization’sa members, however, “are wary of government-run health Gelfand said a government plan wouldn’t be needed if insurance markef reforms, such as prohibiting insurers from denyingh coverage for pre-existing conditions, were enacted.
He hopes the largerr goal of health-care reform – lowering coste so more people can affordcoverage – doesn’g get lost in battles over public plans and employed mandates.