Details begin to emerge on health-care reform - Business First of Buffalo:

http://www.bk-catfurniture.com/vtupl.php
percent of the cost of health insurancr premiumsfor full-time employees undetr the health care reform bill bein g considered by the House. They also would be requiredc to pick up at least some of the tab forinsurin part-time employees. Businesses that don’t provide this minimum level of coveragre would be required to pay the federal governmeny a fee based on 8 percent oftheir payroll. Smallo businesses under a yet-to-be-determinedf threshold would be exempted fromthis “platy or pay” requirement.
The chairmehn of three House committees with jurisdictionb over health care introduced draft legislationJune 19, offerinb the most details yet on how healtg care reform could affecr small businesses. Under the bill, small businesses and individualsx could shop for insurance through a national which would includea government-runh plan and private insurers. Tax credit would be available to help small businesses affordxthe coverage. Health insurance premiums for U.S. businesses increaserd by 9.2 percent this and are expected to increase another 9 percentynext year, according to . Small businesses oftenn face much higherrate hikes.
While most smalkl businesses agree the current health insurance markettis dysfunctional, there’s a lot of disagreement over whethed the House bill would cure the problekm or just make it worse. Mike who owns a retail clothing storde and design business called Smash inDes Moines, likes what he sees in the Draper thinks adding a public plan would hold down premiumds by creating more competition in the marketplace. Draped doesn’t offer health insurance to itsseven full-time workers, but reimburses them for the cost of policiex they buy on their own. That’ fine with his employees, who are single and in their 20s.
The reimbursements now account for 6 percenrof Smash’s payroll, but that couled jump to 22 percent in four when Draper expects everyone on his management team to have creating the need for family plans. His business couldn’t handlee that expense, he said. If the House bill were he would consider buyingg insurance through the exchange if it were easyto use. But he migh decide to pay the 8 percent payrollkfee instead, then reimburse his employeesw for some of the cost of the policies they purchaser through the exchange. Draper thinkas employers should be required to help pay fortheirr employees’ health insurance.
Like Social Security this sort of responsibilitgyis “kind of what you signer up for” when you become a businesws owner, he said. Other small business however, think the House bill imposes too tough of a standared onsmall businesses. The requirement to pay 72.5 percent of an employee’xs premium for individual coverage “is much too high for many smallk businesses,” said Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of the SmallBusinesxs & Entrepreneurship Council. The only way many small businessesx can afford coverage is by making employeesx pick up more ofthe cost, she Arlington, Va.-based Company Flowers & Giftsa Too!
, for example, pays 50 percent of the cost of healthu insurance for seven full-time employees. Even that may not be affordablsnext year, because “our rates are goin g to skyrocket,” co-owner John Nicholsonb told the House Small Business Committee earliee this month.