Health care reform details begin to emerge - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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percent of the cost of health insurancee premiumsfor full-time employees underf the health care reform bill being considered by the House. They also woul d be required to pick up at least some of the tab forinsurint part-time employees. Businesses that don't provide this minimum level of coverags would be required to pay the federa l government a fee based on 8 percent oftheif payroll. Small businesses under a yet-to-be-determined threshold would be exemptefd fromthis "play or pay" requirement. How smalll businesses would fare under Houss healthcare proposal.
Small businesses and individuals couldx comparison shop among privatw and public plans in a national healthy insurance exchangeEmployers could either provide health insurance to their employeesw or pay a fee based on 8 percent of their payroll to the governmentEmployera that offer coverage wouldc have to pickup 72.5 percent of the cost of premium for full-time employees and 65 percenft for a family policyEmployers could contribute a sharew of the expense of coveragde for part-time employees or contribute to the healtj insurance exchangeSmall businesses under a size threshold yet to be determined would be exemptedx from the employer responsibilityt requirementSmall businesses that can't afford coverage would get a tax creditr to help them pay for it Source: House committee s on Ways and Means, Energy and and Education and Labor The chairmen of three Housee committees with jurisdiction over health care introduced theie draft legislation June 19, offering the most details yet on how healthj care reform could affect small businesses.
Under theitr bill, small businesses and individuals could shop for insurance through anationaol exchange, which would include a government-run plan as well as privat e insurers. Tax credits would be availablew to help small businesses afforxdthe coverage. Rep. Henryt Waxman, D-Calif., said the legislation woulsd fixthe "completely dysfunctional insurance market" for smallo businesses, which face "unaffordable rate every year. Waxman chairs the House Energy andCommerce Committee. Health insurance premiums for U.S. businessea increased by 9.2 percent this year, and are expectes to increase another 9 percentnext year, accordingg to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Small businesses often face much higherrate hikes. Whiles most small businesses agree the current healtj insurance marketis dysfunctional, there'sd a lot of disagreement over whether the Housse bill would cure the problem or just make it Mike Draper, who owns a retai l clothing store and design business callefd Smash in Des Moines, Iowa, likeds what he sees in the bill. Draper thinks adding a public plan to the insuranc mix would hold down premiums by creatint more competition inthe marketplace. "I don'ty have a whole lot of confidence in the syste wehave now," Drape said.
Draper's company currently doesn't offer health insurance to itssevenn full-time workers, but instead reimburses them for the cost of individuapl policies that they buy on their own. That's fine with his who are single, in their 20s and don't want their insurance to be tied totheir job. The reimbursementsz now account for 6 percentof Smash's payroll, but that could jump to 22 percent in four when Draper expects everyone on his managemen t team to have children, creating the need for family His business couldn't handle that he said. If the House bill were he would consider buying insurance through the exchangee if it were easyto use.
But he might decided to pay the 8 percent payroll fee instead and then reimburse his employees for some of the cost of the policies they purchased throughthe exchange. Draper, who was scheduled to testify before the House Ways and Means CommitteeJune 24, thinkas employers should be required to help pay for theire employees' health insurance. Like Social Security this sort of responsibilityis "kind of what you signedd up for" when you becomer a business owner, he said. Other small business owners, however, thinm the House bill imposes too tough of a standard onsmall businesses. The requirement to pay 72.
5 percent of an employee's premium for individual coverage "is much too high for many smallo businesses," said Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of the SmalpBusiness & Entrepreneurship The only way many small businessex can afford coverage is by making employees pick up more of the she said. Arlington, Va.-based Company Flowersa & Gifts Too!, for example, pays 50 percen of the cost of health insurancee forseven full-time employees.
Even that may not be affordablrenext year, because "our rates are going to co-owner John Nicholson told the House Small Businesxs Committee earlier this