Time: "Health Care: Why Small Business Is Opposing Reform Bills" Answer: Ideology

[TomCADem]

Very interesting article about opposition to health care reform by the small business community:

Health Care: Why Small Business Is Opposing Reform Bills

The reason small businesses have it so bad in the current system is that they have tiny risk pools, which means their premiums are higher and less stable, and their administrative costs are crushing. One central provision of the House bill could greatly mitigate these problems, by allowing small businesses - along with uninsured individuals - to purchase health insurance in a newly established national exchange. This marketplace would pool risk, streamline administrative costs, eliminate the need for expensive insurance brokers and allow small businesses to purchase coverage through a government-run insurance plan, also known as the public option. The exchange and public option would be operational beginning in 2013 and would initially be open only to individuals and businesses with fewer than 25 workers; by 2015, businesses of up to 100 employees would be able to shop there.


Business groups like the Chamber and the NFIB vehemently oppose the public option. The Chamber says it would pay below-cost reimbursement rates, leading doctors and hospitals to charge private insurers (and the employers who purchase coverage from them) more to make up the difference. But even if that were true - and there are many observers who say this fear is overblown - it's not clear that small-business owners would be the ones to suffer.


On an individual basis, small-business owners shopping for coverage would likely want the cheapest acceptable insurance available, and that could well turn out to be the public option. If cost-shifting occurred, large employers not able to shop in the exchange or buy into the public option would be the ones adversely affected. The Chamber, though, also represents those businesses, which already offer coverage to most workers and are chiefly concerned about cost-shifting and new rules mandating minimum standards for coverage. "We have to balance the interests of both," says the Chamber's Gelfand.


The NFIB, which represents mostly businesses with 10 or fewer employees and annual revenues of less than $500,000, says the public option "is an easy way out for legislators who decided to simply grow the size of government." But when asked to elaborate on why members oppose the public option, Amanda Austin, the organization's director of federal public policy, offered a fairly abstract answer: "Their fear is, 'We don't like the insurance industry, but we really don't like the government.' Their relationship with the government up until now has not been overly friendly."

[Hello_Kitty]

1. I gave up on the NFIB years ago

They endorse politicians who lavish giant corporations with tax breaks, against their own best interests very often.

[HughMoran]

2. My small business is totally for healthcare reform

We can't afford to insure people which makes it difficult to find good people. Since when does small business do what costs more money. Yeah, I see the answer above "they trust government less than the insurance companies". But the rate the insurance companies are charging my small business for a family plan is $40k and the current House plan would charge $15k - what business would be against this awesome deal?

[wroberts189]

3. +1 ..all businesss should be behind this it would save big money. nt

[Rosa Luxemburg]

4. With a single payer system they wouldn't have to worry

•Small businesses that meet certain criteria would be able to purchase health insurance through an "insurance exchange" – allowing them to choose among a multitude of plans that would provide better coverage at lower costs than they could find in the current small group market.
•Many small businesses that provide health insurance for their employees would receive a small business tax credit to alleviate their disproportionately higher costs and encourage coverage. The tax credit would be targeted to those firms with employees whose average wages fall below a certain threshold.
•The current reform options include financial incentives for medium- and large-sized firms to provide health insurance coverage through so-called "pay-or-play" provisions. Firms with payrolls or employment levels below a certain threshold, which would include the vast majority of small businesses, would be exempt from the pay-or-play provisions.
•The creation of an insurance exchange would also provide better and lower-cost options for workers in small businesses that do not offer health insurance. Low-income individuals and families would receive sliding scale subsidies to help them purchase insurance. Additionally, health insurers would not be allowed to screen potential enrollees for pre-existing conditions.
•The proposed reforms could help spur entrepreneurial activity by increasing the incentives for talented Americans to launch their own companies, and could increase the pool of workers willing to work at small firms. Further, successful reform would reduce the phenomenon of "job lock," in which workers are reluctant to leave a job with employer-sponsored health insurance out of fear that they will not be able to find affordable coverage. Small firms that are unable to provide health insurance for their employees bear the greatest cost of this phenomenon.
•Reductions in absenteeism and improvements in worker productivity resulting from better health outcomes because of expanded coverage would particularly benefit small businesses.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cea/Health-Care-Reform-and-Small-Businesses

[TomCADem]

9. Well, According To The Article, They Would Oppose Single Payer Too

The current reforms would stand to benefit small businesses, yet the small business spokesman really could not offer a strong reason for opposing reform, except that the government is involved. Well, with single payer, the government would REALLY be involved in health care.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

10. and small business wouldn't have to pay out

only for the owner's salary

[Naturyl]

5. Q: Should business have priority over the common good?

A: No.

[Marr]

6. The Chamber of Commerce isn't "small business".

It represents huge corporate interests, and just happens to still get some donations from clueless small business owners.

[ThoughtCriminal]

7. Either is NFIB

http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/whom-does-the-nfib-represent-besides-its-members/

N.F.I.B. contributed 95% of its PAC money to Republican candidates. The N.F.I.B. on any piece of legislation will be slanted towards the leanings the paying membership and, thus, not representative the feelings of all small businessmen.


http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jim_Hirni
It's nothing more than a revolving door of GOP connected lobbyists.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

8. I don't know these people

I deal with small businesses all the time in the course of my employment - I have NEVER heard a small business owner speak ill of even single payer healthcare. For them it is the great equalizer.