Health care reform details begin to emerge - Memphis Business Journal:

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percent of the cost of health insurance premiumsafor full-time employees undefr the health care reform bill beinyg considered by the House. They also would be requirer to pick up at least some of the tab forinsuringh part-time employees. Businesses that don't provide this minimum leveol of coverage would be required to pay the federa government a fee based on 8 percent oftheirf payroll. Small businesses under a yet-to-be-determined threshold would be exemptee fromthis "play or pay" According to information from the Houser committees on Ways and Means, Energyt and Commerce, and Education and Labor, small businesses and individuals coulcd comparison shop among private and public plans in a nationalk health insurance exchange.
Employers could either providwe health insurance to their employeess or pay a fee based on 8 percent of theird payroll tothe government. Employers that offer coverage would have to pickup 72.5 percengt of the cost of premiums for full-timed employees and 65 percent for a family Employers could contribute a share of the expense of coveragee for part-time employees or contribute to the health insuranc e exchange. Small businesses under a size threshols yet to be determined would be exempted from the employetresponsibility requirement. Small businesses that can'tt afford coverage would get a tax credit to help them payfor it.
The chairmeh of three House committees with jurisdiction over health care introducexd their draft legislationJune 19, offerinvg the most details yet on how health care reformj could affect small businesses. Rep. Henry D-Calif., said the legislation wouled fixthe "completely dysfunctional insurance for small businesses, which face "unaffordabld rate increases" every year. Waxman chairs the House Energg andCommerce Committee. Health insurance premiums for U.S. businessesa increased by 9.2 percent this and are expected to increase another 9 percent next accordingto PricewaterhouseCoopers. Small businesses often face much higherrrate hikes.
While most small businesses agrese the current health insurancd marketis dysfunctional, there's a lot of disagreementf over whether the House bill would cure the problemm or just make it worse. Mike who owns a retail clothing store and design businessx called Smash inDes Moines, likes what he sees in the bill. Draper thinkse adding a public plan to the insurance mix would hold down premiuma by creating more competition inthe marketplace. "I don't have a whole lot of confidence in the systemm wehave now," Draper said.
Draper'sx company currently doesn't offer healtjh insurance to itsseven full-time workers, but instead reimburses them for the cost of individua l policies that they buy on their own. That'sw fine with his employees, who are single, in thei r 20s and don't want theid insurance to be tied totheird job. The reimbursements now account for 6 percentof Smash's but that could jump to 22 percent in four years, when Draper expects everyone on his management team to have children, creatinv the need for family plans. His business couldn't handle that expense, he If the House bill were he would consider buying insurance through the exchange if it were easyto use.
But he mightr decide to pay the 8 percenty payroll fee instead and then reimburse his employees for some of the cost of the policiexs they purchase throughthe exchange. Draper, who was scheduled to testify before the House Ways and Meanz CommitteeJune 24, thinks employers shoule be required to help pay for their employees' health insurance. Like Social Securitty contributions, this sort of responsibility is "kind of what you signex up for" when you become a businesse owner, he said. Other small businessa owners, however, think the House bill imposezs too tough of a standar onsmall businesses. The requirement to pay 72.
5 percent of an employee'zs premium for individual coverage "is much too high for many smalpl businesses," said Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. The only way many small businessesx can afford coverage is by making employeess pick up more ofthe cost, she said. Arlington, Va.-based Company Flowers & Gifts Too!, for pays 50 percent of the cost of healtu insurance forseven full-time employees.
Even that may not be affordablsenext year, because "our rates are going to co-owner John Nicholson told the House Smalkl Business Committee earlier this Small businesses with fewer than 200 employeex paid an average of 86 percentg of employees' premiums for individual coverage in 2008, according to the Kaised Family Foundation and Health Researc h & Educational Trust. That shared dropped to 66 percent for family just above the 65 percentg threshold called for in theHouse proposal.
who testified on behalf of the National Federationm ofIndependent Business, said insurance market reforms, exchanges and tax breakz would help small businesses, but employer mandates would hurt low-margin businesses and public plans could drivre private insurers out of the Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., said the House plan s to exclude very smallobusinesses -- such as barbershops, gas statione and delicatessens -- from the employert mandate.
"We certainly don't want to imposer any burden on them," he Instead, the mandate is targeted at businesseathat "have the wherewithal" to providee insurance but choose not to, he