Health reform details emerge - Houston Business Journal:

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percent of the cost of health insurance premiumsfor full-time employees under the health care reform bill beinb considered by the House. They also would be requiredr to pick up at leasrt some of the tab forinsuriny part-time employees. Businesses that don’t providw this minimum level of coverag e would be required to pay the federal government a fee basee on 8 percent of their Small businesses undera yet-to-be-determined threshold would be exemptee from this “play or pay” The chairmen of three House committeesa with jurisdiction over health care introduced draft legislation June 19, offerint the most details yet on how healtnh care reform could affect small businesses.
Under the small businesses and individuals could shop for insurance through anational exchange, which woulde include a government-run plan and privatee insurers. Tax credits would be availabld to help small businesses affordthe coverage. Healthg insurance premiums for U.S. businesses increased by 9.2 percent this and are expected to increase another 9 percent next accordingto PricewaterhouseCoopers. Smallo businesses often face much higher rate While most small businesses agrede the current health insurance marketis there’s a lot of disagreemeng over whether the House bill would cure the problek or just make it worse.
Mike who owns a retail clothing store and designh business called Smash inDes Iowa, likes what he sees in the Draper thinks adding a public plan woulds hold down premiums by creating more competition in the Draper doesn’t offer health insurance to its seven full-time but reimburses them for the cost of policiee they buy on their own. That’sz fine with his employees, who are singl e and in their 20s. The reimbursementes now account for 6 percenof Smash’s payroll, but that couldx jump to 22 percent in four years, when Drape expects everyone on his management team to have creating the need for family plans.
His businesas couldn’t handle that expense, he If the House bill were he would consider buying insurancde through the exchange if it were easyto use. But he might decide to pay the 8 percenft payrollfee instead, then reimburse his employees for some of the cost of the policiews they purchase through the exchange. Draper thinks employers shouled be required to help pay fortheir employees’ health insurance. Like Social Securityt contributions, this sort of responsibility is “kinf of what you signed up for” when you become a businessz owner, he said. Other small business owners, however, thinkj the House bill imposes too tough of a standare onsmall businesses.
The requirement to pay 72.5 percentf of an employee’s premium for individual coverage “ias much too high for many small businesses,” said Karehn Kerrigan, president and CEO of the SmallBusines & Entrepreneurship Council. The only way many smalp businesses can afford coverage is by making employees pick up more of the she said. Arlington, Va.-based Company Flowers Gifts Too!, for pays 50 percent of the cost of health insurance forseven full-time employees. Even that may not be affordablwenext year, because “our ratee are going to skyrocket,” co-owner John Nicholson told the House Smalpl Business Committee earlier this month.