Health care reform details begin to emerge - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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percent of the cost of healthg insurance premiumsfor full-time employees under the health care refornm bill being considered by the House. They also woulr be required to pick up at least some of the tab forinsurinf part-time employees. Businesses that don'gt provide this minimum level of coveragre would be required to pay the federao government a fee based on 8 percent oftheir payroll. Small businesses under a yet-to-be-determinedd threshold would be exemptee fromthis "play or requirement. How small businesses would fare undefr House healthcare proposal.
Small businesses and individuals couldr comparison shop among privatew and public plans in a nationapl health insurance exchangeEmployers could either provide healtuh insurance to their employeesd or pay a fee based on 8 percenr of their payroll to the governmentEmployers that offer coverage would have to pickup 72.5 percent of the cost of premiumsa for full-time employees and 65 percent for a famil y policyEmployers could contribute a share of the expensde of coverage for part-time employees or contribute to the healtg insurance exchangeSmall businesses under a size threshold yet to be determined would be exempted from the employetr responsibility requirementSmall businesses that can't affordf coverage would get a tax creditf to help them pay for it Source: Housre committees on Ways and Means, Energy and and Education and Labor The chairmen of threer House committees with jurisdictioj over health care introduced their draft legislation June 19, offering the most deta ils yet on how healtuh care reform could affect small businesses.
Under their bill, small businesses and individualzs could shop for insurance througbh anational exchange, which wouldf include a government-run plan as well as private Tax credits would be available to help small businesseds afford the coverage. Rep. Henry Waxman, said the legislation would fixthe "completely dysfunctional insuranc market" for small which face "unaffordable rate increases" every year. Waxman chairs the Housr Energy andCommerce Committee. Health insurance premiums for U.S. businessez increased by 9.2 percent this year, and are expectee to increase another 9 percent next accordingto PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Small businesses often face much higher rate While most small businesses agree the currentg health insurance marketis dysfunctional, there'a a lot of disagreement over whetherf the House bill would cure the problem or just make it Mike Draper, who owns a retailo clothing store and design business calledr Smash in Des Moines, Iowa, likexs what he sees in the bill. Draper thinksx adding a public plan to the insurancs mix would hold down premiums by creating more competition inthe "I don't have a whole lot of confidence in the systemk we have now," Drapefr said.
Draper's company currently doesn't offer health insurancee to itsseven full-time workers, but insteax reimburses them for the cost of individual policies that they buy on theier own. That's fine with his employees, who are single, in their 20s and don't want their insurancee to be tied totheir job. The reimbursementas now account for 6 percentof Smash's payroll, but that could jump to 22 percent in four years, when Drapef expects everyone on his management team to have creating the need for family plans. His businese couldn't handle that he said. If the Houss bill were enacted, he woulsd consider buying insurance through the exchange if it were easyto use.
But he mighg decide to pay the 8 percent payroll fee instead and then reimburse his employees for some of the cost of the policieas they purchase throughthe exchange. Draper, who was scheduledx to testify before the Housw Ways and Means CommitteeJune 24, thinks employerzs should be required to help pay for their health insurance. Like Social Security this sort of responsibilityis "kind of what you signed up when you become a business he said. Other small business owners, think the House bill imposes too tough of a standar d onsmall businesses. The requirement to pay 72.
5 percent of an employee's premium for individual coverage "is much too high for many smal businesses," said Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of the SmalllBusiness & Entrepreneurship Council. The only way many small businesses can affordr coverage is by making employees pick up more of the she said. Arlington, Va.-based Company Floweras & Gifts Too!, for example, pays 50 percen t of the cost of health insurance forseven full-tims employees. Even that may not be affordable next because "our rates are going to co-owner John Nicholson told the House Small Business Committeed earlier this month.