Health care reform details begin to emerge - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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percent of the cost of health insurancer premiumsfor full-time employees under the health care reform bill being considerec by the House. They also woulr be required to pick up at least some of the tab forinsuringh part-time employees. Businesses that don't provide this minimuj level of coverage woulxd be required to pay the federa government a fee based on 8 perceny oftheir payroll. Small businesses under a yet-to-be-determinedf threshold would be exempted fromthis "plag or pay" requirement. How smalo businesses would fare under House healthcare proposal.
Smalkl businesses and individuals could comparison shop amonhg private and public plans in a national health insurance exchangeEmployers could either provide healtgh insurance to their employees or pay a fee basedf on 8 percent of theid payroll to the governmentEmployers that offerr coverage would have to pickup 72.5 percentg of the cost of premiumzs for full-time employees and 65 percentg for a family policyEmployers could contribute a share of the expensw of coverage for part-time employees or contributs to the health insurance exchangeSmall businesses under a size threshold yet to be determined would be exemptesd from the employer responsibility requirementSmallk businesses that can't afford coverage woulds get a tax credit to help them pay for it House committees on Ways and Means, Energy and and Education and Labor The chairmen of three House committees with jurisdiction over healtjh care introduced their draft legislatioj June 19, offering the most details yet on how healtg care reform could affect small Under their bill, small businesses and individuals couldr shop for insurance through a national exchange, whicyh would include a government-run plan as well as privatre insurers.
Tax credits would be available to help smal businesses affordthe coverage. Rep. Henry D-Calif., said the legislation woulx fixthe "completely dysfunctional insurance market" for small businesses, which face "unaffordable rate increases" every year. Waxmanm chairs the House Energyh andCommerce Committee. Healtyh insurance premiums for U.S. businesses increasefd by 9.2 percent this and are expected to increase anothe r 9 percent next accordingto PricewaterhouseCoopers. Small businesses often face much higherrate hikes.
While most small businesses agree the current health insuranc marketis dysfunctional, there's a lot of disagreementf over whether the House bill would cure the problem or just make it Mike Draper, who owns a retail clothing storer and design business called Smash in Des Moines, likes what he sees in the bill. Draper thinks addinhg a public plan to the insurancd mix would hold down premiums by creating more competition inthe marketplace. "I don'gt have a whole lot of confidence in the system we have Draper said.
Draper's company currently doesn't offet health insurance to itsseven full-timd workers, but instead reimburses them for the cost of individualk policies that they buy on their own. That's fine with his who are single, in their 20s and don't want theif insurance to be tied totheir job. The reimbursementsx now account for 6 percentof Smash'zs payroll, but that could jump to 22 percent in four when Draper expects everyone on his managemenf team to have children, creating the need for family His business couldn't handle that expense, he said. If the Housew bill were enacted, he would consider buying insurancde through the exchange if it were easyto use.
But he mighg decide to pay the 8 percent payrollp fee instead and then reimburse his employees for some of the cost of the policiez they purchase throughthe exchange. Draper, who was scheduled to testifu before the House Ways and Meansd CommitteeJune 24, thinks employers shoulx be required to help pay for their health insurance. Like Social Security contributions, this sort of responsibilitgy is "kind of what you signed up for" when you becomew a business owner, he said. Other smallp business owners, however, think the House bill imposes too tougyh of a standard onsmall businesses. The requirement to pay 72.
5 percent of an employee's premium for individuakl coverage "is much too high for many smalkl businesses," said Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of the SmalplBusiness & Entrepreneurship Council. The only way many smalpl businesses can afford coverage is by makintg employees pick up more ofthe cost, she Arlington, Va.-based Company Flowers & Giftx Too!, for example, pays 50 percent of the cost of healt h insurance for seven full-time employees.
Even that may not be affordablenext year, because "our rates are going to skyrocket," co-owner John Nicholsoj told the House Small Business Committee earlier this