Health reform details emerge - Business First of Buffalo:

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percent of the cost of health insurance premiumsdfor full-time employees under the healtbh care reform bill being considered by the They also would be required to pick up at leasyt some of the tab for insuring part-time Businesses that don’t provide this minimum level of coverager would be required to pay the federa l government a fee based on 8 percent of theif payroll. Small businesses under a yet-to-be-determined threshold woulc be exempted fromthis “play or pay” The chairmen of three House committees with jurisdiction over health care introducex draft legislation June 19, offering the most detailsa yet on how health care reform could affectt small businesses.
Under the bill, smal businesses and individuals could shop for insurance througg anational exchange, which woulsd include a government-run plan and private insurers. Tax creditx would be available to help small businessed affordthe coverage. Health insurance premium for U.S. businesses increased by 9.2 percentg this year, and are expected to increase anothee 9 percentnext year, according to Small businesses often face much higher rate While most small businesses agree the curreny health insurance market is there’s a lot of disagreement over whether the Housw bill would cure the problem or just make it Mike Draper, who owns a retail clothintg store and design business called Smash in Des Moines, likes what he sees in the Draper thinks adding a publicx plan would hold down premiums by creating more competitionm in the marketplace.
Draper doesn’t offer health insurancw to itsseven full-time workers, but reimbursea them for the cost of policies they buy on theirf own. That’s fine with his who are single and intheier 20s. The reimbursements now account for 6 percentof Smash’s payroll, but that could jump to 22 percentg in four years, when Draper expectsd everyone on his management team to have children, creating the need for familuy plans. His business couldn’t handlw that expense, he said. If the Housed bill were enacted, he would consider buying insurance through the exchange if it were easyto use.
But he migh decide to pay the 8 percent payrollfee instead, then reimbursd his employees for some of the cost of the policiesx they purchase through the exchange. Draper thinks employers shoule be required to help pay fortheie employees’ health insurance. Like Social Securityg contributions, this sort of responsibility is “kind of what you signerd up for” when you become a business he said. Other small business owners, think the House bill imposes too tough of a standarc onsmall businesses. The requiremenyt to pay 72.
5 percent of an employee’sd premium for individual coverage “is much too high for many smallk businesses,” says Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of the SmallBusinesx & Entrepreneurship Council. The only way many small businesses can afforr coverage is by making employees pick up more of the she said. Arlington, Va.-based Company Flowerzs & Gifts Too!, for example, pays 50 percengt of the cost of health insurance forseven full-time employees.
Even that may not be affordablenext year, because “oudr rates are going to skyrocket,” co-owner John Nicholson told the House Small Business Committee earlier this