Health reform details emerge - Baltimore Business Journal:

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percent of the cost of health insurance premiumsdfor full-time employees under the healthn care reform bill being considered by the They also would be required to pick up at leasrt some of the tab for insuringy part-time employees. Businesses that don’t provide this minimum level of coverage would be required to pay the federao government a fee based on 8 percent oftheier payroll. Small businesses under a yet-to-be-determined thresholdx would be exempted fromthis “play or pay” requirement.
The chairmenb of three House committees with jurisdictiojn over health care introducecd draft legislationJune 19, offerinvg the most details yet on how healtj care reform could affecft small businesses. Under the bill, small businesses and individuals could shop for insurance through a national which would includea government-rum plan and private insurers. Tax credits woulrd be available to help smal l businesses affordthe coverage. Healtu insurance premiums for U.S. businesses increased by 9.2 percent this and are expected to increase anotherr 9 percentnext year, accordingh to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Small businesses often face much highe rrate hikes.
While most smallk businesses agree the current healtb insurance marketis dysfunctional, there’s a lot of disagreement over whethedr the House bill would cure the problem or just make it Mike Draper, who owns a retail clothing store and design business called Smash in Des Moines, Iowa, likes what he sees in the Draper thinks adding a public plan would hold down premiums by creatintg more competition in the Draper doesn’t offer health insurance to its seven full-timw workers, but reimburses them for the cost of policiee they buy on their own. That’s fine with his who are single and in their 20s.
The reimbursements now account for 6 percentof Smash’s but that could jump to 22 percent in four years, when Drapefr expects everyone on his management team to have children, creating the need for familh plans. His business couldn’ handle that expense, he If the House bill were he would consider buyinf insurance through the exchange if it were easyto use. But he might decide to pay the 8 percent payroll fee then reimburse his employees for some of the cost of the policiew they purchase throughthe exchange. Drapefr thinks employers should be required to help pay fortheier employees’ health insurance.
Like Social Security this sort of responsibilitis “kind of what you signed up when you become a business owner, he Other small business owners, however, think the Housed bill imposes too tough of a standard on small businesses. The requiremenf to pay 72.5 percent of an employee’zs premium for individual coverage “is much too high for many smalll businesses,” says Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of the SmalloBusiness & Entrepreneurship The only way many small businessex can afford coverage is by makintg employees pick up more of the she said. Arlington, Va.
-based Company Flowers & Gifts for example, pays 50 percent of the cost of healt h insurance forseven full-time Even that may not be affordable next because “our rates are going to skyrocket,” co-owner John Nicholsonm told the House Small Business Committee earlier this