Health reform details emerge - San Francisco Business Times:

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percent of the cost of healtj insurance premiumsfor full-time employees under the healtn care reform bill being considered by the They also would be required to pick up at least some of the tab for insurinf part-time employees. Businesses that don’t provid e this minimum level of coverage would be required to pay the federal government a fee based on 8 percenty oftheir payroll. Small businesses under a yet-to-be-determinec threshold would be exempted fromthis “pla or pay” requirement.
The chairmeb of three House committees with jurisdiction over health care introduced draft legislationJune 19, offering the most detailzs yet on how health care reform could affect small Under the bill, small businesses and individuals couldc shop for insurance through a national exchange, which would include a government-run plan and private insurers. Tax credites would be available to help small businessea affordthe coverage. Healthj insurance premiums for U.S. businesses increased by 9.2 percent this and are expected to increase another 9 percent next accordingto PricewaterhouseCoopers. Small businesses oftemn face much higherrate hikes.
While most small businesse s agree the current health insurance marketis there’s a lot of disagreement over whether the Hous e bill would cure the problem or just make it worse. Mike who owns a retail clothing store and design business calledc Smash inDes Moines, likes what he sees in the Draper thinks adding a public plan would hold down premiums by creating more competition in the marketplace. Draper doesn’t offef health insurance to itsseven full-time but reimburses them for the cost of policies they buy on theire own. That’s fine with his employees, who are single and in theirt 20s.
The reimbursements now account for 6 percengtof Smash’s payroll, but that coulr jump to 22 percent in four when Draper expects everyone on his management team to have children, creatingf the need for family plans. His businessd couldn’t handle that he said. If the House bill were enacted, he woulrd consider buying insurance through the exchang if it were easyto use. But he might decide to pay the 8 percentt payrollfee instead, then reimburse his employeexs for some of the cost of the policiew they purchase through the exchange. Drapet thinks employers should be required to help pay fortheifr employees’ health insurance.
Like Social Securitg contributions, this sort of responsibility is “kind of what you signed up when you become abusiness owner, he said. Other small business owners, however, think the House bill imposes too tough of a standard onsmallo businesses. The requirement to pay 72.5 percentg of an employee’s premium for individual coverages “is much too high for many smallk businesses,” says Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of the SmalllBusiness & Entrepreneurship Council. The only way many small businessew can afford coverage is by makingb employees pick up more of the she said. Arlington, Va.
-based Company Flowers & Gifts for example, pays 50 percent of the cost of health insurance forseven full-time employees. Even that may not be affordablsnext year, because “our ratee are going to skyrocket,” co-owner John Nicholson told the House Smalpl Business Committee earlier this month.