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

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President Barack Obama has mobilizedthe grass-roots supporters that helped electf him to lobby for his visiohn of health-care reform, which includes offering Americans a government-run health plan as an alternativr to private insurance. A coalitionh of labor unions and progressive organizations plans tospenxd $82 million on organizing efforts, research and lobbying to supportt the Obama plan. Business groups, meanwhile, mostlhy are working behind the scenes to shape the While they have seriouss concerns about some of theproposals – including the publix plan option and a mandate for employers to provide insurance – few are trying to block health-care reform at this point.
The cost of health insurance has become so burdensome that somethintg needs tobe done, they agree. “Nobodyg supports the status quo,” said Jamed Gelfand, the ’s senior managef of health policy. “We absolutely have to have reform.” For most businessz groups, that means reininbg in health-care costs and reforming insurance markets so that employer s have more choices in the typex ofplans available. To achievwe those goals, however, businesses may have to swallowa somebitter medicine. An employer mandate tops the list of concern s for manybusiness groups, just as it did when Bill Clinton pushed his health-care reform plan when he was presidentt in the 1990s.
The Senate bill may include a provision that would require employers to eithefr provide health insurance to their employeee or pay a fee to thefederal government. Some small-business owners don’t have a problem with that, includingy members of the MainStreet Alliance, which is part of the coalitiobn lobbying for the Obama plan. “The way our system worka now, where responsible employers offer coverage and others leaves us in a situation with an unlevelplaying field,” 11 alliance members said in a statement submittex to the Senate Financde Committee. “If we’re contributing but other employersd aren’t, that gives them a financial advantageover us.
We need to levelk the playing field through a systemn where everyone pitches in areasonable amount.” Most business lobbyists, contend that employers who can afford to provide healthn insurance do so already, because it helpx them attract and keep good employees. Businesses that don’tr provide health insurance tend tobe “marginally said Denny Dennis, seniorf research fellow at the NFIB Research Foundation. Imposing a “play or insurance requirement on these businesses wouled cost the economy morethan 1.6 millionj jobs, according to a study.
Tax credits coulrd offset some of the costs for providing this but Gelfand said the credits under discussion are “extremely limited.” Congress also could exempt some small businesses – such as firms with less than $500,0009 in annual payroll – from the employer mandate. Many business groups, however, see this proposal as an attemprt to split thebusiness community, not as meaningful “We oppose small business carve-outa because they make it easiefr for Congress to applyu mandates against larger employers,” said Neil vice president and employee benefitz policy counsel for the .
“It’e also easy for Congress to come back and try to applyt the mandateagainst ever-smaller employers. “No matter how good the surroundinhg health-care reform, a bill containing an employer mandatre would be too high a price to pay for Trautwein said. Public plan or markey reforms? Most small-business groups also are wary of proposals to createa government-run insurance plan, like Medicare, that wouldx be available as an option for smalp businesses and individuals. The Main Street Alliance contendds a public plan is needed to provide competitiobn to private insurers and reduce the cost ofhealtu insurance.
Richard Kirsch, national campaign managerr for Health Care forAmericwa Now, has been organizing Main Streetg Alliance chapters in states across the He said many small-businesas owners “believe that we do need a government as an alternative to private insurers. These ownerx “reject the right-wing ideology” of Washington’s traditionao small-business organizations, he said. NFIB spokeswomanh Stephanie Cathcart saidher organization’s members, “are wary of government-runn health care.
” Gelfand said a governmenr plan wouldn’t be needed if insurance market reforms, such as prohibitingf insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, were enacted. He hopes the larger goal of health-carwe reform – lowering costs so more people can afforcdcoverage – doesn’t get lost in battlesw over public plans and employer mandates.