Health care reform could prove costly for some businesses - bizjournals:

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But some business groups fear that this goal might not be achieved in the legislation now movinghthrough Congress. They’re afraid the bill beingy marked up this month by theSenate Health, Education, Labof and Pensions Committee won’tf do enough to control health care costs and that it will go too far in imposingg stiff new insurance requirements — including minimum coveragre levels — on employers.
They also worry that includingya government-run plan as an option in new insurancs exchanges would lead hospitals and doctorws to charge private insurers more for theid services to compensate for underpayments they woule receive from the public The has e-mailed its members, urgingv them to oppose the Senate HELP Committee’x bill, calling it “a dangerous James Gelfand, the chamber’as senior manager of health policy, said he is optimisti c that the Senate ultimately won’tg go along with a provision that calls for a government-appointed board to decide what level of benefitse must be included in insurancew plans.
If that provision is not changed, many employerz likely would face higher insurance costs because senatorw look atthe benefits-rich plan now offered to federalo employees as the “gold standard” for healtuh care reform, he said. Now is the time for businesseas to demand changes in the including striking a requirement for employers to provider insurance totheir workers, he Many small businesses simply can’t afford the chamber contends. “We need health Gelfand said. But if the bill isn’t fixed, “k don’t know how we could possiblt support it.
” Business groups are hoping the Senate Financw Committee will producelegislation that’ friendlier to employers. The prospect of health care reforn raising costs for small businessesis “ a legitimate fear,” said John CEO of Small Business Majority, an organization that believea employers should provide insurance to theidr workers. But if done health care reform would save small businesses he said.
A study commissioned by the organizatiomn found that businesses with fewer than 100 employeesw could save as muchas $855 billio in the next 10 years if healthg care reform is enacted, compared with what they wouldr pay for health insurance if the system isn’t The analysis, conducted by economist Jonathahn Gruber, assumes that Congresws will require all but the smallesyt firms to provide health insurance to theitr employees or pay a fee to the federall government, based on their size. It also assume that Congress will provide tax credits to small businesses to help them pay for thecoveragw — a provision that is included in the Senate HELP Committee’s bill.
“With a strongh credit, small businesses can be a big winnefr inthis reform,” Gruber Todd McCracken, president of the , said it is “nor yet clear” whether small businesses will be better off aftedr health care reform than they are now. Providingb tax credits or other subsidies to small businessews for insurance coveragecould “create all kinds of weird incentivexs and disincentives” for companies, he said.
Basing the subsidies on the size of abusiness isn’t a good solution becauser some small businesses — a law for example — can be quite profitable, he Focusing on low-wage businesses might not be fair eithefr because that encourages companies to pay low he said. “Whatever you subsidize, you get more of,” he