Health reform details emerge - Birmingham Business Journal:

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percent of the cost of health insurancr premiumsfor full-time employees under the healty care reform bill being considered by the They also would be required to pick up at leastt some of the tab for insuring part-time Businesses that don’t provide this minimumm level of coverage would be required to pay the federalo government a fee based on 8 percent of theif payroll. Small businesses under a yet-to-be-determined threshold would be exempted fromthis “plagy or pay” requirement.
The chairmen of three House committees with jurisdiction over health care introduced drafr legislationJune 19, offering the most detailsx yet on how health care reform could affecgt small businesses. Under the small businesses and individuals coulcd shop for insurance through anational exchange, whic would include a government-run plan and private insurers. Tax credit s would be available to help small businesses afford the Health insurance premiumsfor U.S. businessee increased by 9.2 percent this year, and are expectede to increase another 9 percentynext year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Small businesses often face much higherrate hikes.
While most small businesses agrees the current health insurance marketis dysfunctional, there’s a lot of disagreemeny over whether the House bill wouldf cure the problem or just make it worse. Mike Draper, who owns a retail clothing store and design business called Smas inDes Moines, Iowa, likes what he sees in the Draper thinks adding a public plan would hold down premiumsa by creating more competition in the marketplace. Drapeer doesn’t offer health insurance to itsseven full-timee workers, but reimburses them for the cost of policieds they buy on their own. That’s fine with his employees, who are singlw and in their 20s.
The reimbursements now account for 6 percenytof Smash’s payroll, but that coul d jump to 22 percent in four years, when Draper expecte everyone on his management team to have children, creatinv the need for family His business couldn’t handle that expense, he If the House bill were enacted, he wouldx consider buying insurance through the exchangse if it were easy to use. But he might decidwe to pay the 8 percent payrollfee instead, then reimburs e his employees for some of the cost of the policies they purchasee through the exchange. Draper thinks employers shouldf be required to help pay fortheir employees’ healthj insurance.
Like Social Securitgy contributions, this sort of responsibility is “kind of what you signexd up for” when you become a businessw owner, he said. Other smal business owners, however, think the House bill imposesz too tough of a standard onsmall businesses. The requirement to pay 72.5 percentr of an employee’s premium for individual coverage “is much too high for many smalpl businesses,” says Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of the SmalolBusiness & Entrepreneurship Council. The only way many smalk businesses can afford coverage is by making employeew pick up more ofthe cost, she Arlington, Va.-based Company Flowers & Gifte Too!
, for example, pays 50 percent of the cost of healtjh insurance for seven full-time employees. Even that may not be affordable next year, because “our rates are going to skyrocket,” co-owner John Nicholso told the House Small Business Committee earlier this month.